I found 1984 almost as frightening as my initial reading of it at age 17. It certainly came more alive for me this time around as I was reminded of Iran and in particular of Marina Nemat's description of life there in Prisoner of Tehran. Her experience of being watched, trying to have a lover and most of all her time in prison was similar in many ways to Winston's. That said, nothing comes close to the sheer horror of living with Big Brother watching. Oh my.
I'm glad I dusted this one off and had another "go" at it as part of reading through the Time 100 list.
Next books: I'll try to finish two books I put aside: Gone With the Wind (just 125 pages of Scarlett remaining, I will get through this book, yet) and Rabbit, Run - I just couldn't watch his foolishness and had to put it down. I may have to throw in some lighter reading to get through them.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
The Sense of an Ending
Just finished reading Julian Barnes, Booker Award winning novel, The Sense of an Ending. Awesome! Young Adrian Finn questions the accuracy of historical accounts written years after events have occurred. How good of a detective does the historian need to be? How well should we expect that witnesses to events remember what happened? Can one trust the accounts of journals, letter and articles written at the time?
The story is narrated by Tony, a retiree in his sixties who tells his own tale as well as the tale of an old friend who dies young. Tony has lived a comfy life only to allow it - and his memories of the past - to be disrupted when he accepts an inheritance from the mother of an old lover named Veronica. It could be simple - take the money and run. But there is a diary involved.
The diary was left to Tony, and he wants to read it but Veronica has it and will not give it to him. However, she gives him one entry and an old letter. Veronica goadsTony on to do some detective work to sort out what took place after she and Tony broke up. He tries to figure it out from the clues she gives, but he can't get it. She says he never will.
As he begins to piece clues together, his memories and the story shape-shift. A clever reader is going to figure it all out long before Tony does, but the underlying theme of uncovering history keeps the book interesting. The Sense of an Ending leaves as many questions unanswered as it does those solved.
The story is narrated by Tony, a retiree in his sixties who tells his own tale as well as the tale of an old friend who dies young. Tony has lived a comfy life only to allow it - and his memories of the past - to be disrupted when he accepts an inheritance from the mother of an old lover named Veronica. It could be simple - take the money and run. But there is a diary involved.
The diary was left to Tony, and he wants to read it but Veronica has it and will not give it to him. However, she gives him one entry and an old letter. Veronica goadsTony on to do some detective work to sort out what took place after she and Tony broke up. He tries to figure it out from the clues she gives, but he can't get it. She says he never will.
As he begins to piece clues together, his memories and the story shape-shift. A clever reader is going to figure it all out long before Tony does, but the underlying theme of uncovering history keeps the book interesting. The Sense of an Ending leaves as many questions unanswered as it does those solved.
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