My second time of reading a Julian Barnes novel, or should I say a novella. This book won the Booker prize but was considerably shorter than I had imagined it would be. The book follows the story of Tony, and his description of childhood and university experiences. It provides details of close and significant relationships. The second half of the book revisits some of these relationships when Tony is in his retirement, and having to re-examine some events with a different perspective provided by the passage of time and through various revelations provided by other characters and their versions of stories and events. All in all, this was a quick read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I think it was a quick read partly because of the length of the book, as I didn't identify with any of the characters, so certainly wasn't particularly looking to read the book quickly to find out what happened to the characters. In my opinion, I would have chosen 'Pigeon English' over this book to win the award. I just wasn't particularly bothered or enamoured with this book... maybe its just me?...
