Love, etc. - Julian Barnes

...itself with the sustaining of love, through the various adverse conditions that affect most of us. Lack of money; difficult relationships within wider family; illness; children, and employment issues.

Stuart, our first character, is a tortoise (in the view of his oldest friend and rival Oliver). He is steadfast, and on the surface, a bore. He wasn’t able to hold onto his first wife, Gillian, but since that time he has become financially ...
...particularly easy character to get to know, but he has a great deal going on under the surface.

Oliver, the hare, is an over the top character. He talks in riddles using outmoded language and clever comparisons. I have moved from hating him, to liking him, to pitying him within a few pages. The easiest character to develop and the joker in the pack.

Gillian, the muse of them both. She is a fairly cold character, and ... more

I picked up Love Etc (Julian Barnes) at a local library as they were having a book sale of withdrawn books. I have to admit to liking the cover and choosing this book purely on that basis. Love Etc is the sequel to an earlier novel ‘Talking It Over’, which I have not read, but this has not had an impact on the enjoyment of this novel, and may even had improved on the story. I am not a lover of sequels unless I am aware that I am reading the first book of a trilogy, etc.

Love Etc was first published in 2000. The writing style is unusual, and took me a while to get into the different characters. It reminds me of the film ‘When Harry Met Sally’ in the way the main characters take it in turns to talk to me, the reader. So, for instance, page one is Stuart talking to me. I wasn’t aware he was talking directly to me, and thought he was talking to another character in the book and that the author had forgotten to put in the speech marks. Then I thought he was thinking to himself about what he ‘wanted’ to say to the other characters. The next page is Oliver talking to me/the reader and he is criticizing Stuart. Next comes Gillian, who has/is having a relationship with both Stuart and Oliver. Confused? As the pages turn, it comes more natural to jump from one character to another.

Barnes introduces extra characters as and when necessary. We progress along their entwined lives, in an omniscient way, always knowing what the other person/s are thinking, and where things are being misconstrued by the main players.

Barnes is clever in that he moves your allegiances from one character to another, even when you have settled for whose ‘side’ you are on, you may not stay on that side for long and find yourself siding with another character. Very cleverly done.

It is a love story, but not a conventional one. The falling in love was over ten years ago, so this story concerns itself with the sustaining of love, through the various adverse conditions that affect most of us. Lack of money; difficult relationships within wider family; illness; children, and employment issues.

Stuart, our first character, is a tortoise (in the view of his oldest friend and rival Oliver). He is steadfast, and on the surface, a bore. He wasn’t able to hold onto his first wife, Gillian, but since that time he has become financially successful, and has some laudable views on consumerism. Not a particularly easy character to get to know, but he has a great deal going on under the surface.

Oliver, the hare, is an over the top character. He talks in riddles using outmoded language and clever comparisons. I have moved from hating him, to liking him, to pitying him within a few pages. The easiest character to develop and the joker in the pack.

Gillian, the muse of them both. She is a fairly cold character, and boring. Or bored. Her feelings are buried deep down, but she is similar to Stuart in personality. This is probably why Oliver is friends with both of them, as he compliments both of them with how they would rather be.

I usually prefer to read stories of this nature written by a female author. The reason being that, in my view, women have a better understanding of how women think, than men do. This is evident in this novel too. I find that the male characters ring slightly more true (they are a tad farfetched also) than the female characters. I didn’t find that I was relating to the thought processes of the women as well as I was able to relate to the outward personalities of the males. Maybe that is because I am only privy to the outward personalities of men. I have no idea about how men think – I put my own interpretation on what I ‘assume’ is going on in their minds, but quite often I am told (by men) that they weren’t really thinking of anything at all. Women think a great deal. In a way that a swan looks serene on a river, whilst webbed feet are moving at high speed under the water in order to move forward., this is how women’s minds work.

Not going too deep hasn’t spoiled my enjoyment of the book. I wanted a light read for my holiday, so any heavy philosophising would not have been conducive of a restful time for my poor, overworked brain! It isn’t a shallow read, either, as such, and does induce a bit of thought provocation.

Love Etc is still on sale. Below are the details from the page on Amazon.co.uk for anyone who wants to buy a new one:
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (8 Jun 2001)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0330484184
• ISBN-13: 978-0330484183

Mine cost a mere 50p from the library and to be honest, with an older book such as this, unless you are a serious book collector rather than someone who passes books on once read, you would probably be able to find this in one of the many second hand shops in your local town.

Nevertheless, it was a worthy read and one I recommend.

 

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