The Sense of an Ending

[dawnoshiro]

That's a really interesting interpretation of the novel as a cautionary tale.

I didn't really see Tony's life as being "screwed up" per se by his lack of understanding... In the beginning of the novel, he seems fairly content with the way things worked out for him. It's only by going on this journey that he realizes the amount of damage his casual actions could inflict (albeit unintentionally).

I'm still a bit resistant to the idea that Tony "never gets it". I think he "gets it" in regards to certain things, but in the overall scheme of his life, there are always going to be blind spots in his interactions with others. But isn't that true of everyone? We all filter our experiences through the lens of our own perceptions and values...

I'm not sure the message of the story is to avoid being like Tony... In some ways, we are ALL unavoidably like Tony. Things which mean a great deal to other people might not mean much at all to us and vice versa. Casual actions do damage; we misunderstand and misinterpret all the time.

The passage you cited with Margaret is a great example. We, as the reader, can see that Tony often misses the point. But Julian Barnes could very well be using the section to say to the reader: "Think about it. You could be missing the point too... "

We, the reader, can see that Tony has "blown chances." But he isn't even aware he HAD the chance. His relationship with his family looks terrible to an outside observer, but he isn't particularly upset by the way things are going.

After I finished reading the book, I was telling a friend of mine that he was "just like Tony" in that he never got a lot of things. To my surprise, he turned it around on me and pointed out instances in which I, too, did similar things to the characters in the story.

It's very, very difficult to see oneself and one's actions in a larger context. The idea of shifting perceptions and different versions (especially of things like history) is a theme in a lot of other Julian Barnes novels as well. But this novel is the one that really brings that concept home on a personal level.

I'd like to say that I'm not going to be like Tony...but I already know it's too late.

[linda]

Hello Dawn; thank you for your insightful feedback. I think we are mostly in agreement about the messages in this book. Yes; I think Margaret's comments to Tony are actually Barnes' comments to the reader; "Be careful, while we are all somewhat like Tony, don't become too much like him, because look where the poor bugger is .... alone and clue-less."
And maybe if we are moved by this book; we are not a completely hopeless case. So, don't be so hard on yourself Dawn. Chuckle.
I think the end of Tony's life occurs in his youth. The book helps us to gain some sense of this ending. And also, maybe by the end of the book, Tony is gaining some insight into his problems too. Maybe.

[terefere]

I am reading again "The Sense of an Ending". Every time when I open this book, I have a deep feeling that I encounter something very important. I think everyone a sensitive man is like Tony. Each of us over the years feel wasted, missed opportunities, plagued with real or imaginary faults, which can not be undone. And each of us, at least from time to time, feel anxious about the future. Therefore, this novel is close to so many people. Julian Barnes wrote in a masterly way by the fate of individuals, what timeless and always present in human life what so many people feel, but can not realize and can not express it. Unlike us, the artists have the courage to stand up to the confrontation with the most important problems of life and they pay for it in some cases, very high price.

[terefere]

In my opinion, The Sense of an Ending is a metaphysical novel. The fate of the heroes are a metaphor for the condition of modern man. Tony is the everyman from the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Unsaturation, guilt, anxiety is a universal problem for all people. This is a problem for those who believe in God (we are created in the image and likeness of God, but we are imperfect) and non-believers - why we exist, after the death of anything will not be. Illusions of a memory makes that we will never know the truth (Tony), the intellect does not protect us from the pitfalls of life (Adrian).

What's next? - Perhaps Pascal's wager?

I am proposing a toast (French calvados) for you health, Mr. Julian Barnes. Thanks to you we won't be bored in 2013, certainly - thank you!

[terefere]

On the other hand, Tony can be perceived as alter ego of the author. His name – Webster – the same as the well-known lexicographer, suggests at least a person prone to reflection, despite his constant assurances, he is not average. Understanding the modern theory of time requires adequate intellectual capacity, and his reflections on time, history, perception and memory relate to the basic problems of philosophy from ancient to modern times.
Adrian is a mysterious figure: brilliant, sophisticated, serious – he is also the alter ego of the author. Why did he have to die? Because he scared children's cart in the hall, his formalistic gesture turned away from life, like a river flowing upstream absurdly. Author parted with this party of his personality, but it does so with regret, and stands on the side of life, on effort of existing, to take responsibility for other people, for the world in general, and as a result, accept the unrest. Compassion, humility, and a fascination with the phenomenon of life makes him an ally of the average peoples (be an ordinary woman).
The narrative of novel is round (has a shape wheels) (eg suicide Robson and Adrian's commentary - Adrian's suicide in similar circumstances, in fact, different variants of the ruling on the operation of the time). The wheel is a pefect figure, so the rules of the world presented are valid without exception, Adrian broke them. The number "three" symbol of perfection and universalism (there were three of us, and now appeared fourth) - a 'propos - someone, somewhere, noticed the permanent presence of the number three in prose JB. The author masterfully writes about serious matters lightly, precise draws silhouette of heroes.
The novel has a lot of tropes for reading out - for example, autobiographical, sources of citations, biblical connotations - and secrets. One of them is the strength of its impact - you can not break away from its and leaves a feeling of catharsis.

[Betterlatethannever]

About the Pascal's wager is mentioned in the "Nothing to be frightened of".

[jeffocks]

Hello! I've enjoyed reading this thread. I picked up this book as a filler between other reads. But I want to know more. I wanted to dislike the book as the first third read like a blog. But I became very interested in the characters. I hate to impose 'psychology' on the (any) book but I was very stuck by Mrs Ford/Veronica as having 'mother-daughter boundary problems'. Their behaviour is very typical where issues apply on that front. This made me go back an re-read it again (how annoying when I wanted only a filler book) in the light of this. The mathematics make more sense to me if Tony is both a 'prop' in a mother-daughter boundary struggle (therefore a 'tool' in their activity) as well as a cause or agent in a chain of grief (he's an algebraic variable after all and can entertain more than one state). What Tony 'can never get' perhaps is how he is both agent and instrument (as used by others). Tony is a inevitably a 'variable', and as we know variables are predicated on conditionals ('if' statements, if b=a+; or if...) "now what if Tony..."
Deary me I'm having one of those days... any reactions most welcome!

[emc2]

In my opinion, analyzing the psychological traits of heroes SOAE is a dead end. I think that in this novel we have a universal drama of attitudes.
Mathematical equations show the relationships between the characters - they can be useful, but also unreliable because people are sometimes unpredictable.

[biff98]

I'm a picky reader but still I read a lot of fiction and I admit I often skip passages that seem to be no more than filler. With 'The Sense of an Ending' I did not want to miss a single word and re-read many passages.

[jeffocks]

Mar 5, 2013 15:14:11 GMT -5 @emc2 said:

In my opinion, analyzing the psychological traits of heroes SOAE is a dead end. I think that in this novel we have a universal drama of attitudes.
Mathematical equations show the relationships between the characters - they can be useful, but also unreliable because people are sometimes unpredictable.

Thanks for the thoughts. I am generally anti-psychology too. I was not thinking so much of analyzing traits so as being reminded about ways mothers and daughters are often said to have antagonisms related to how they manage their identities. Nevertheless grist to the fictional mill!

[vjcv]

I have just read this book for the 6th time. 6 times on Kindle and finally got a hard copy. I will undoubtably read it another 6 or 60 times. I can't recall ever re-reading a book more than twice and even a short story only 4x. Hauntingly splendid.

[paul]

I have enjoyed the discussion a great deal. It shows what a great book this is for book clubs to discuss. Nobody raised an issue that I have been wondering about. Why is the younger Adrian "uncomfortable" in the presence of Tony? Did he sense the tension between Tony and Veronica during the first visit? I am quite sure that Tony is not the young Adrian's father because I believe that if he had slept with Sarah that it would have been reported in his narrative on the weekend. But Adrian would not have known if he or Tony was the father and Veronica would also not have known.

[so]

In this matter I can only to tell, alike Tony - I don't get it. Maybe our Author leads us astray?

[didi]

As a French reader of Julian Barnes's Sense of an Ending (in English), I am very touched to read the reference to Léo Ferré's song: "avec le temps va tout s'en va" which summurizes this magnificent novel so well!
All I have read on this forum is very interesting since it shows how the author has managed to put us in a state of confusion/unrest. What a conjurer!
It might be interesting to know that the French title is: Une fille, qui danse-
because to me and to my friend who read the book in French it seems to be central in the understanding of the plot.
Indeed we think that Tony doesn't get it except at this crucial moment and actually spoils everything when he meets Veronica again.
To me this novel is a masterpiece because of the story because of the writing style the philosophy on the question of time.
Well you can put this book just beside Proust's books in your "quest of lost time" !

[rdkaplan]

"Blood money." No commenter I've seen has understood the meaning of Mrs. Ford's "blood money" of 500 pounds bequeathed to Tony. To understand this, one must re-read several interactions between Mrs. Ford and Tony when he visited her home with Veronica. These show that Mrs. Ford felt that she was (may have been) responsible for Tony's breakup with Veronica and was assuaging her guilt for this and the horrible consequences of that breakup by leaving him a blood money bequest.

At the house, Mrs. Ford first warns Tony: "Don't let Veronica get away with too much." When he asks Mrs. Ford what she means, she shakes her head and says, totally ambiguously, "We've lived here ten years." Then, when Tony is leaving he waves goodbye to her and she "responded, not the way people normally do, with a raised palm, but with a sort of [peculiar] horizontal gesture at waist level." Tony ends by saying, "I wish I had talked to her more." Tony realizes that Mrs. Ford is trying to tell him something.

To me, these actions by Mrs. Ford were intended to warn off Tony from Veronica. The horizontal hand gesture by Mrs. Ford was a dismissive signal to him. That is, she is telling him that he would do best to abandon her. Which he did. Certainly, Mrs. Ford saw - experienced - the awful results that were possibly influenced by her communications to Tony about Veronica.