likecymbeline's review against another edition
2.0
There were a lot of ideas I liked in here, but perhaps I prefer when Barnes follows through with them in a novel. I didn't find this collection of short stories an especially striking work of Barnes', though I like Anglo-French relations, absurd writers retreats, and Victorian lesbians who own wineries together. Of the set I probably liked the first story the best, but I'd been hoping they'd improve from there and I wasn't sure they did. Again, the writing is excellent and the topics are generally the sort of thing I'm fond of, but there was no punch-in-the-gut that I'm used to getting from reading Barnes.
I would like to talk to him in person about this book. One day.
I would like to talk to him in person about this book. One day.
lynnenad's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Julian Barnes is a skilled writer and observer of humans. Every story is a small polished gem with something or someone to ponder. My only “complaint “ is that, as a non-European, I suspect I did not understand, appreciate or even (in many cases) notice the involvement of the subtly nuanced relationship between the English and the French.
blandine's review against another edition
3.0
Actual rating: 3.5 stars. (I enjoyed some short stories more than others, hence the rating.)
cherylcheng00's review against another edition
3.0
At first, back then, the commonality of grief had helped: wives, mothers, comrades, an array of brass hats, and a bugler amid gassy morning mist which the feeble November sun had failed to burn away. Later, remembering Sam had changed: it became work, continuity; instead of anguish and glory, there was fierce unreasonableness, both about his death and her commemoration of it. During this period, she was hungry for the solitude and the voluptuous selfishness of grief: her Sam, her loss, her morning, and nobody else's similar. She admitted as much: there was no shame to it. But now, after half a century, her feelings had simply become part of her. Her grief was a calliper, necessary and supporting; she could not imagine walking without it.
bucket's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection, with just a few misses. They all feature Englanders in France - in time periods ranging from the 1700s to 2000-ish and everything in between. The thematic tie is basically just the experience of being non-French in France. Though the immigrant/alien experience is very prominent in some stories and completely absent in others. My favorites:
Interference - a dying and very selfish composer redeems himself in the eyes of his lover at the last possible moment.
Evermore - a woman mourns her brother who died in WWI in ways both touching and disturbing.
Hermitage - two women undertake to run a vineyard together.
I also liked Experiment (nephew digs into the truth of his uncle's dalliance with surrealists) and Dragons (reformation, protestant Pierre's life torn to shreds).
Interference - a dying and very selfish composer redeems himself in the eyes of his lover at the last possible moment.
Evermore - a woman mourns her brother who died in WWI in ways both touching and disturbing.
Hermitage - two women undertake to run a vineyard together.
I also liked Experiment (nephew digs into the truth of his uncle's dalliance with surrealists) and Dragons (reformation, protestant Pierre's life torn to shreds).
spygrl1's review
2.0
Short stories dealing with cultural clashes, conflicts, and foibles of France and England. I especially liked "Interference," in which a composer and his companion communicate and misunderstand one another, and "Experiment," a humorous tale of a man's encounter with French surrealists and how it shaped his life.
bookeared's review
3.0
Somewhat uneven, and the book gains more substance if one is familiar with both Britain and France, but Barnes, as ever, does have a very gentle prose, elegant and insightful when at his best. The last story in this collection, Tunnel, rang especially true, to my mind.
likecymbeline's review
2.0
There were a lot of ideas I liked in here, but perhaps I prefer when Barnes follows through with them in a novel. I didn't find this collection of short stories an especially striking work of Barnes', though I like Anglo-French relations, absurd writers retreats, and Victorian lesbians who own wineries together. Of the set I probably liked the first story the best, but I'd been hoping they'd improve from there and I wasn't sure they did. Again, the writing is excellent and the topics are generally the sort of thing I'm fond of, but there was no punch-in-the-gut that I'm used to getting from reading Barnes.
I would like to talk to him in person about this book. One day.
I would like to talk to him in person about this book. One day.
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