MY BOOK WORLD

Quite a tour de force for Barnes to squeeze a lifetime into 163 pages! Makes one wonder why most novels couldn’t do with a bit of streamlining (though not possible with many narratives, to be sure).
The first third or so of this novel about Tony Webster is set in his youth: his three mates and a prominent girlfriend who dumps him eventually for one of those friends, Adrian. Then Adrian commits suicide. Barnes writes a brilliant transitional scene which moves readers to his life as an adult:
“By now I’d left home, and started work as a trainee in arts administration. Then I met Margaret; we married, and three years later Susie was born. We bought a small house with a large mortgage; I commuted up to London every day. My traineeship turned into a long career. Life went by . . . [A]fter a dozen years Margaret took up with a fellow who ran a restaurant. I didn’t much like him—or his food, for that matter—but then I wouldn’t, would I? Custody of Susie was shared. Happily, she didn’t seem too affected by the breakup; and, as I now realize, I never applied to her my theory of damage” (59).
This transition continues for another page and a half until readers begin Part Two: Tony is sixty. He is bequeathed the late Adrian’s diaries by Adrian’s mother, but his wife, Veronica, will not release them to Tony. Why? That’s what the rest of the novel is about. Happy reading! I know it was for me. Not a disappointment either.
Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Edward Albee
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Janet Flanner
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Horton Foote
FRI: My Book World | Michael Denneny, On Christopher Street