tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20112247.post1963390648969435447..comments2024-01-11T11:26:24.785-06:00Comments on Maggie Reads: The Sense of an Ending (copy)maggie moranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02462439415973311990noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20112247.post-18226266935139779602013-04-22T13:16:20.075-05:002013-04-22T13:16:20.075-05:00We live life with the assumption that age and time...We live life with the assumption that age and time erode our memories of the past - that pain mitigates, and joy too looses it's ecstasy. If it sounds like a gross generalization, at least this is what I, as a 26 year old, had so long believed. In this poignant and tragic account of a 60 year old looking back at his life - indeed, all the way back to his school days - Julian Barnes (or rather Tony Webster) argues otherwise.<br /><br />Reconciled to a lonely life, Tony Webster is past the stage of responsibility; way past. As he waits for the inevitable end to his days - no, it's not an illness, but presumably a state of mind - a letter from a lawyer stirs memories of a long forgotten past; memories even he had thought his mind to be incapable of conjuring. As the events unfold, he is forced to reevaluate his old relationships, reconsider the consequences of his actions, and indeed, re-imagine his past.<br /><br />The title is apt to the point of being 'philosophically self-evident', for this is a book about a past that is never stagnant, a remorse that is incurable, and a grief that is inconsolable. Meerahttp://shayari.co.innoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20112247.post-79222842491926418922012-06-23T05:09:42.052-05:002012-06-23T05:09:42.052-05:00Thanks Luxembourg, I think?!? Nice of you to leave...Thanks Luxembourg, I think?!? Nice of you to leave a drive-by review. What I do are book talks. I'm not here to give short answers to books that a pretensous person can use as trash talk at parties. I am here to relate the story and hopefully encourage another soul to read it. I do not assume that people who read my column are stupid where I have to feed them answers either. The title means millions of different things to the millions of readers experiencing the book. Please, take your snippet to Amazon, Good Reads, Library Thing, etc. where it will be better appreciated.maggie moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02462439415973311990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20112247.post-8974485719759860012012-06-08T20:50:32.793-05:002012-06-08T20:50:32.793-05:00This beautifully written book is the story of Tony...This beautifully written book is the story of Tony Webster, now aged in his 60s. He is looking back at his life and specifically at two key relationships he had in the past. The first with Adrian, a friend from school, and the second with Veronica, his first girlfriend. Over the years he has not thought much about either of them, but a legacy left to him in a will reopens the floodgates of memories. The book is partly about those relationships, but also about how Tony comes to terms with his own life and what he has learned over the years. The title, "the sense of an ending" refers therefore to many things: the end of a relationship, the end of a life and the twilight of Tony's own years.Luxembourghttp://somuch2thank4.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com