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Talking It Over by Julian Barnes

Alexey Polyarinov's first collection of essays that I have only recently read, reminded me of my undying love to Julian Barnes and I thought it might be high time I read another of his novels.
It was the epigraph mentioned by Polyarinov that made me get hold of this particular book in the first place, as it said "Lies like an eyewitness" and promised a story with multiple narrators, none of them entirely reliable, and none completely unreliable.
Three characters are talking to someone hiding behind the scenes (and their identity is another smart move) about a story of love and betrayal, and, just as the epigraph promises, they don't always see eye to eye, and sometimes seem to be looking in an entirely different direction. Throughout the first half of the book, I entertained myself by spotting slight discrepancies in their accounts of the same events, but as the story goes on, Barnes seems to be losing interest in postmodern quirks and gets carried away with what the characters have to say. Somehow, stripped off its postmodern paraphernalia, the novel boils down to another story of a love triangle, neither the worst I have read, nor the best.
There is a sequel, Love, etc, but I'm not sure I want to know what happens to the characters next.

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257 viewsedited  May 15, 2022 at 07:59

Talking It Over by Julian Barnes

Alexey Polyarinov's first collection of essays that I have only recently read, reminded me of my undying love to Julian Barnes and I thought it might be high time I read another of his novels.
It was the epigraph mentioned by Polyarinov that made me get hold of this particular book in the first place, as it said "Lies like an eyewitness" and promised a story with multiple narrators, none of them entirely reliable, and none completely unreliable.
Three characters are talking to someone hiding behind the scenes (and their identity is another smart move) about a story of love and betrayal, and, just as the epigraph promises, they don't always see eye to eye, and sometimes seem to be looking in an entirely different direction. Throughout the first half of the book, I entertained myself by spotting slight discrepancies in their accounts of the same events, but as the story goes on, Barnes seems to be losing interest in postmodern quirks and gets carried away with what the characters have to say. Somehow, stripped off its postmodern paraphernalia, the novel boils down to another story of a love triangle, neither the worst I have read, nor the best.
There is a sequel, Love, etc, but I'm not sure I want to know what happens to the characters next.

BY Read_teach_crossstitch