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 successful, ...
...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 ...

orlando 30.08.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Love, etc. - Julian Barnes

...all in all, none about Love, etc! The media tell me that he’s one of your three contemporary literary biggies, together with Martin Amis and Ian McEwan. his work has been translated into 30 languages, he was shortlisted for the Booker (for the novel Flaubert’s parrot, his greatest success so far) and was the first Englishman in France to win both the prix médici and the prix fémina. He’s a committed Francophile and has been made ...
...attracted my attention. Love, etc is Barnes’ ninth novel and a sequel to the earlier one Talking It Over. I don’t know the first book and can therefore not discuss it, which doesn’t matter as Love, etc is a book in its own right; if it weren’t, it wouldn’t be offered independently. No big surprise: the novel is about three people, two men, Stuart and Oliver, and the woman Gillian. What is their relationship? Gillian, ...

MALU 25.05.2003 (29.05.2003) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Love, etc. - Julian Barnes