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A review by marthaos
The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes
3.0
This book of short stories by Julian Barnes was both entertaining and mildly melancholic. Barnes has a way of writing about death, with gravitas and insight, but also with levity and humour. Such was the writing in “Levels of Life” and “The Sense of an Ending”.
These stories were written from various voices, some female, some male, mostly English, but also American and European; but the common thread seemed to be people who were aging. As such, questions of mortality, illness and death prevailed, and if not always blatantly addressed, lurked darkly overhead. The tone was overwhelmingly middle class, and there was much attention given to food, another theme that linked the stories.
However I felt that the author’s voice was too present in these stories, and the stories themselves were too similar to one another to make a satisfying collection. Read independently of one another, they are all strong stories, but read as part of a collection, none really stood out for me. Even the clever “Knowing French”, where the fictional protagonist addresses Barnes, the author in a series of letters, failed to stand apart as an excellent piece, despite its clever premise. The theme, voice and tone was too similar to the other stories to endure in lasting memory, in my opinion.
Overall this collection was very readable. The writing, as always, was distinguished and stylish. Each story was incisive and well crafted. However, I would have really liked to see more variety within the collection, I would have liked Barnes to tackle the subject of aging from far more wide-ranging voices and backgrounds and to venture outside of his comfort zone as I think this would have made for a more exciting read and stand-out stories that persist for longer.
These stories were written from various voices, some female, some male, mostly English, but also American and European; but the common thread seemed to be people who were aging. As such, questions of mortality, illness and death prevailed, and if not always blatantly addressed, lurked darkly overhead. The tone was overwhelmingly middle class, and there was much attention given to food, another theme that linked the stories.
However I felt that the author’s voice was too present in these stories, and the stories themselves were too similar to one another to make a satisfying collection. Read independently of one another, they are all strong stories, but read as part of a collection, none really stood out for me. Even the clever “Knowing French”, where the fictional protagonist addresses Barnes, the author in a series of letters, failed to stand apart as an excellent piece, despite its clever premise. The theme, voice and tone was too similar to the other stories to endure in lasting memory, in my opinion.
Overall this collection was very readable. The writing, as always, was distinguished and stylish. Each story was incisive and well crafted. However, I would have really liked to see more variety within the collection, I would have liked Barnes to tackle the subject of aging from far more wide-ranging voices and backgrounds and to venture outside of his comfort zone as I think this would have made for a more exciting read and stand-out stories that persist for longer.