Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.
Now Tony is retired. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove.
Rating: 3 Stars
Positives: After having this book recommended to me by one of my university lecturers a few years ago, I thought it was finally time to give The Sense of an Ending a try. The novella whilst only consisting of two chapters, with one focusing on the past, and the other the present, has quite a good level of detail. I absolutely loved the first chapter, seeing Tony's life right from sixth form, fumbling his way through a degree and trying to navigate a relationship with Veronica. It is apparent to the reader straight away that Veronica and Tony will never work out, they are too different and he doesn't quite fit in with her set. And we see this all being recalled in Tony's memory, of how he thinks he penned a certain letter to Adrian before travelling to America, only to find upon his return that his former friend has committed suicide. At the time the reasons for Adrian's suicide are unclear, but rest assured we discover them later on.
The Sense of an Ending shows us that our own memory is not infallible, in fact psychology studies show that eyewitness testimony is so unreliable because we subconsciously alter out memories and fill in the gaps, yet it is something we rely heavily on for our justice system. When Tony is given a copy of that letter that he wrote to Adrian all those years ago, in a fit of anger that Adrian and Veronica were now considered a couple, we see that he himself is shocked at what he wrote. Reading the letter myself, I must say even I felt sorry for Veronica, a character whom I don't particularly like all that much. And if only Tony understood at this point the implications of what had been said in his letter, the events that it in turn would cause to happen.
Admittedly in the second half of the book, especially when we see the final twist, we can understand why Veronica now hates Tony so much, and also I found myself growing to like her more. Despite how she feels about Tony, she is trying to make him understand what happened all those years ago, but Tony doesn't really see what's in front of him. And when he finally works it out, when he finally understands everything, including the real reason behind Adrian's suicide, I do feel somewhat sorry for him.
Negatives: To be honest I found Tony a very bland character. I know he is supposed to be portrayed this way, a man who is never anything more than average, who has never taken control of anything in his life, but Tony really bored me. However this did have the advantage of making the other characters a lot more colourful.
The other thing that really annoyed me, and I mean really annoyed me, was how the idea of history or time is always cropping up. I know in a story about how our memories are percieved this needs to happen, but was it really necessary for it to happen quite so often?
Would I recommend this book? Whilst The Sense of an Ending didn't grip me, I would recommend it from the point of view that it makes the reader realise just how much all of our actions matter and that even the most indirect consequences can be devastating.
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