The Sense of an Ending

By: Julian Barnes

Narrated by: Richard Morant

Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2011

The powerful, unsettling, and beautifully crafted new novel from one of England’s greatest contemporary writers.

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour, and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.

The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity, and insight, it is the work of one of the world’s most distinguished writers.

A complete and unabridged reading by Richard Morant.

©2011 Julian Barnes (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Elegant, playful, and remarkable.” ( The New Yorker)

“A page turner, and when you finish you will return immediately to the beginning . . . Who are you? How can you be sure? What if you’re not who you think you are? What if you never were? . . . At 163 pages, The Sense of an Ending is the longest book I have ever read, so prepare yourself for rereading. You won’t regret it.” ( The San Francisco Chronicle)

“Dense with philosophical ideas . . . it manages to create genuine suspense as a sort of psychological detective story . . . Unpeeling the onion layers of the hero’s life while showing how [he] has sliced and diced his past in order to create a self he can live with. (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

“Barnes seems equipped to write with humour and elegance about anything he turns his attention to” ( Financial Times)

This is a wonderful read!

What made the experience of listening to The Sense of an Ending the most enjoyable?

The narrator's voice had authority, the story was believable, the characters memorable.

What did you like best about this story?

I listened to it twice and found the woman character vexing at times, but compelling. I was curious about the reasons for her behavior. Finn's family situation remains a mystery one can only imagine. Maybe we've all been abused, as the mother says. If that be true, then NONE of us is abused. I know that isn't true.

Which scene was your favorite?

The classroom in the sixth form.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The pub scenes, the five men from the

Great book about the inner life of men

Would you consider the audio edition of The Sense of an Ending to be better than the print version?

No, I don't think so. Sometimes I wished I had read it as it seems so dense with ideas.

What did you like best about this story?

Its the best exploration of the inner lives of men since High Fidelity. It almost seems like a sequel. While High Fidelity was about the beginning of adulthood, this is about the end of adulthood, when all one's experiences have coalesced but one still feels more or less as lost as ever.

Which scene was your favorite?

Its less about scenes that making sense of the experience of living, of dealing with relationships from long ago that have been reanimated.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

You don't get it. You never will.

Thought Provoking

Had this book recommended by a friend and didn't have the time to read it - the Audio book was a perfect compromise. Narration was supurb and the plot was good. Had to go back from the ending and listen to the last couple of chapters again because of the unexpected ending. Understand why it was recommended to me and would recommend it to others.

A Rare Insight Into Not So Rare Self Deception

What did you love best about The Sense of an Ending?

A unique experience of being taken through a plausible series of one man's formative and less than satisfactory experiences with his first lover as he remembers them, prior to facts unfolding which force him and the reader to reconsider his role in the events, and to see his perception of the ex-lover and indeed his personality in a totally different light. Highlights the subjective nature of memory and how we create a story of our past (and present) that can be totally at odds with how key others may see us, and indeed with objective reality.

What other book might you compare The Sense of an Ending to and why?

Kasuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let me Go' though an entirely different kettle of fish is similar in that it takes the reader on a journey where things turn out to be entirely different to how both the protagonists and the reader had envisioned.

If you could rename The Sense of an Ending, what would you call it?

Am I really who I think I am?

Any additional comments?

The novel gives a lot yet is not demanding.

An intriguing story

The narration of this story was just right and the story itself was intriguing. I enjoyed it.

Gentle and compelling story - spoiler warning

If you could sum up The Sense of an Ending in three words, what would they be?

Soft, powerful and engaging

Who was your favorite character and why?

Adrian because I wanted to have his detachment but not his suicidal tendencies

What about Richard Morant’s performance did you like?

Excellent performance. Richard's reading perfectly complemented the 'softness' referred to above. By that I mean there is a gentle fluidity to the story and the telling that utterly belies the power of the events and reactions to them by the various participants. The book's subject lives such an 'ordinary' life but with extraordinary if entirely unintended consequences.

If you could take any character from The Sense of an Ending out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Adrian. He sounds like an interesting person and I want to know what happened with Veronica and why he killed himself. Why would someone like Adrian go for a cow like Veronica? Perhaps she was a more complex character than portrayed by the author.

Any additional comments?

Loved this book and now want to read everything written by Julian Barnes.

very clear thinking about life of ordinary people

Would you consider the audio edition of The Sense of an Ending to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the printed version, so I can't compare it to the audio edition.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Of course it was the narrator, because it is about his own life, actions and feelings.

What does Richard Morant bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

at first I thought his narration a bit boring, but only until I was fully involved in his storytelling. Afterwards I found his narration very sensitive, I felt as if he was telling his own biography.

evocative

Though I am, in my late-twenties, barely old enough to be nostalgic about my own youth, what this book did was make me nostalgic for a era in British history -- "Between the end of the Chatterley ban/ And the Beatles' first LP" -- that I did not and could never belong to. The narrator is an innocent describing the history of his own innocence, a youth that coincided with the arrival of the 1960s (which only arrived for some, as the narrator reminds us cheekily) and never, until the very end, loses his wide-eyed stance towards the world. The narrator is almost spared from knowing the kind of truth that makes adults out of others. Almost spared, but not quite, for as several other reviewers have noted, Barnes gives the tale an unpredictable ending, one that makes the reader, like the narrator, cast back in time and try to uncover the steps that lead to the novel's denouement.

An excellent narration, pitch-perfect, and comic to boot.

Well done and highly recommended!

Great story beautifully written and read

Where does The Sense of an Ending rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Ranks very high.

What did you like best about this story?

Intriguing characterisations and themes.

Which character – as performed by Richard Morant – was your favorite?

narrator

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It needed time to digest and even repeat some sections

makes you do a double take

What did you love best about The Sense of an Ending?

It makes you go over the ending a few times to grasp and understand the ending. There are minor questions left around but I think the author leaves it as such to let you ponder. A rare story that leaves you thinking about the end in your mind.