The Only Story

This is the story of Paul, a 19-year-old man-boy who fell in love with Susan, a 42-year-old married woman with two daughters about Paul’s age. The story is told, in the first person, but midway through, it shifts into the second, and then the third person. Does that signify the narrator’s attempt to distance himself from his own story? It is s powerful story about how the ecstasy and tragedy of love dissolve in each other. Paul begins his story by telling us how he met Susan and they fell in love. He tells about the ways in which they conceal that love, first from each other, then from their friends and families. Julian Barnes uses his impressive mastery of the language to bring us to feel, without abhorrence or condemnation; in fact, we might find ourselves cheering on this pair of love-birds. Then, just as we are getting comfortable with them and their love, Barnes starts to pull at our heart-strings, and before we know it, he tears them asunder. Is it better, he asks, to love the more and suffer the more, or to love less and suffer the less? He leaves us an important hint as to how to approach this question – and that, is the role that chance plays. No matter who we are or how much we plan to take control of our affairs; no matter how much we rationalise our actions, we lose to the fickleness and callousness of chance – or do we? Follow this story through the years. If you are a young reader, read it again when you are in your 70’s. You will be sure to see it differently, as you would your own life, in retrospect. The audio cd format was very well narrated by Guy Mott. Motts brings the sensual dimension of the audible thought to accentuate the wide range of emotions that Barnes intended to convey in the book.

Julian Barnes is a great writer, but this is not a great novel. Young man starts relationship with older woman is a somewhat trite plotline. Even the mechanism for the telling of the story is rather banal. It could have been rescued by inciteful character development, but the protagonists remain essentially two-dimensional. Other characters suffer the same lack of development; indeed, most are mere caricatures rather than fully-fledged actors in the narrative. The story comes across as one that Julian Barnes wanted to write, but you are left with a feeling of emptiness (and also relief) as the final paragraph ends. Maybe that is how JB meant it to be, but the lack of depth is very disappointing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short novel which charts the love story of a young man and a much older women, and the impact of that relationship throughout the man's life. The writing is captivating whilst it moves from first to second and finally third person as the narrator gradually distances himself from the events and the relationship.Touching on expectations not met, on self protection, and the disappointments which make up much of the human condition this is a wonderful, beautifully written and constructed novel

The main problem with this very slight novella is that it's supposed to be a love story, but it isn't about love at all. It's about a kind of adolescent sexual obsession, then a strangely solipsistic determination to continue in a tired relationship, then a resigned acceptance of a duty that is never really analysed. At the end one could say that the boy/ man behaves with a sort of heroism, but so he should, having brought other people into a miserable situation. At no point in this book is there a glimpse of a genuine relationship of love: how do these two people talk to each other? Why do they never ask questions? And if Love is really the only story, why are they so horrible to everybody else? It's a cheap and easy piece of writing.

JB's writing is always sensitive, complex and very moving. He has the ability to create highly engaging characters that feel real, complex (as we all are) and build your relationship with them at a speed that ensures you keep turning page after page after page. This book is another one of those and it sits with you long after you finish it. Thank you JB, looking forward to reading the next one.