The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
"The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes is a reflective novel that explores themes of memory, regret, and the complexities of human relationships. The story follows Anthony "Tony" Webster, a retired man who grapples with his past as he receives an unexpected inheritance from the deceased mother of his former girlfriend, Veronica Ford. The narrative oscillates between Tony's adolescence in the 1960s—where he navigates friendships and first loves—and his later years, where he seeks to understand the implications of a letter he wrote long ago, which may have influenced the tragic fate of his friend Adrian Finn.
As Tony reconnects with Veronica to retrieve Adrian's diary, he confronts uncomfortable truths about his past actions and their impact on others. The novel delves into the intricacies of memory, suggesting that our recollections may be unreliable and shaped by our perceptions. Ultimately, Tony's journey leads him to a deeper understanding of guilt, responsibility, and the elusive nature of closure, culminating in a profound exploration of how our past continues to shape our present. This multifaceted narrative invites readers to reflect on their own histories and the meanings we ascribe to the relationships we forge.
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The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
- Born: January 19, 1946
- Birthplace: Leicester, England
First published: 2011
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Narrative
Time of plot: 1960s and early twenty-first century
Locale: London and Chislehurst, England
Principal Characters
Anthony "Tony" Webster, the narrator and main character
Margaret, his former wife and the mother of their daughter
Susan, his daughter, mother of his two grandchildren
Veronica Mary Elizabeth Ford, his college girlfriend
Adrian Finn, his high school friend, who earns a scholarship to Cambridge University
Colin, and Alexander, his high school friends
Sarah Ford, Veronica’s mother
John "Jack" Ford, Veronica’s outgoing older brother
Adrian Jr., Adrian’s intellectually disabled forty-year-old son
The Story
In the 1960s, narrator and viewpoint character Anthony "Tony" Webster is a teenager, attending a boys’ prep school in central London, England. He is part of a group of ordinary adolescent students that makes facetious juvenile comments during classes, reads widely but shallowly, is casually profane, and fantasizes constantly about sex. The group is impressed with a newcomer to the school, Adrian Finn. He says things to teachers they wish they had the courage to say, and he is not hesitant about bringing up taboo subjects, such as the death of a classmate, Robson, who commits suicide after impregnating his girlfriend. Tony and his group eagerly absorb Adrian—brainy with a sophisticated brand of humor—into their ranks, and he becomes the unofficial leader.
Upon graduation, the group splits up, and the four members promise to keep in touch with one another, Tony leaves to study history at Bristol University. Colin is admitted the University of Sussex. Alexander eschews higher education to enter his father’s marine insurance business. Adrian wins a scholarship to Cambridge University.
As time passes and real life intrudes, the friends communicate only sporadically. Adrian is the most faithful correspondent, and the other friends write most often to him rather than to each other. While attending the University of Bristol, Tony meets a girlfriend, Veronica Ford, pixieish and slightly older than him with more sophisticated musical and literary tastes.
Veronica invites Tony to Chislehurst to meet her family. Though the weekend proves uneventful, Tony’s impressions of the individual Fords, especially Veronica’s brother, Jack, and her mother, Sarah, linger long afterward. Tony later introduces Veronica to the rest of his prep school group, the members of which are noncommittal about her.
Tony and Veronica continue dating before separating. After they break up, she allows Tony to sleep with her for the first and only time. Following the split, Tony receives a letter from Adrian, formally asking his permission to date Veronica. Tony immediately dashes off a humorous postcard giving approval, but several weeks later sends a more lengthy reply that he promptly forgets about.
Following graduation from college, Tony travels around the United States for six months. When he returns to England, there is a brief note waiting from Alex, informing him that Adrian, just twenty-two years old, slit his wrists and died. The surviving friends meet for a reunion on the anniversary of Adrian’s death and promise to make it an annual event, but they drift apart. In the years that follow, Tony begins a career in arts administration; marries Margaret; fathers a daughter, Susie; and amicably divorces after Margaret takes up with another man who ultimately leaves her for another woman. Tony and Margaret remain friends.
In part two of the novel, in the twenty-first century, Tony, now bald, is retired. He communicates with his daughter, who is married to a doctor and is the mother of two children, primarily by e-mail or phone. He dines regularly with his former wife, Margaret, now his best friend. One day, he receives notice he has been named in the estate of Sarah Ford, Veronica’s mother, now deceased. Sarah has left him a small amount of money and Adrian Finn’s diary, which Tony is eager to read. The diary, however, is in Veronica’s possession. The estate lawyer will not divulge Veronica’s address, but does release her brother Jack’s e-mail. Tony writes Jack, attempting to track down Veronica and obtain the diary. Jack eventually answers and provides information that Tony uses to contact Veronica. They begin exchanging e-mails, and Veronica eventually agrees to meet.
When they finally reunite, gray-haired Veronica tells Tony she has burned Adrian’s diary but gives him a copy of the letter Tony wrote to Adrian forty years before, after Adrian asked permission to date Veronica. It is an awful document: vituperative, obscene, and dripping with jealousy and hatred. Tony is saturated with guilt, certain his letter was the cause of Adrian’s suicide.
Tony and Veronica meet several more times. Veronica takes Tony to see a group of odd people walking together toward a pub, but tells him nothing about them. Tony begins hanging out in the area and follows the group, hoping to learn their identities. He discovers the group members are mentally disabled, and one—a gangly man with a goofy smile—is Adrian’s son, now about forty years old. Tony assumes Veronica is the mother of Adrian Jr. Ultimately, he learns Veronica is Adrian Jr.’s sister. The mother was Sarah Ford, who gave birth to Adrian Jr. at a dangerously late age. This fact gives Tony an alternate reason for Adrian’s suicide, bringing him a measure of peace and the "sense of an ending" to the whole affair.
Bibliography
Dyer, Geoff. "Julian Barnes and the Diminishing of the English Novel." New York Times. New York Times, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 15 May 2014.
Robson, Leo. "Finishing School." New Statesman 140.5065 (2011): 47–49. Literary Reference Center. Web. 15 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=64116686&site=lrc-live>.
"The Sense of an Ending." New Yorker 87.32 (2011): 93. Literary Reference Center. Web. 15 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=66673697&site=lrc-live>.
Suneetha, P. "A Sense of Mnemonic Odyssey: A Perspective on Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending." IUP Journal of English Studies 8.3 (2013): 57–69. Literary Reference Center. Web. 15 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=91675217&site=lrc-live>.