Normally a book that includes the words ‘teenage boys’ and ‘sex-hungry’ in the blurb would probably have me running for the hills, but so many people hold this book in great esteem that I took a chance - and it paid off!
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While the characters in The Sense of an Ending are indeed pretentious little twits, the narrator, Tony, is aware of their faults, especially given that he’s writing the story as a reflection... But how reliable a narrator actually is Tony? Barnes explores the weaknesses of memory, the way time can distort, twist, even erase memories until we’re confronted with them later on life, unable to deny the way things truly played out, altering our perceptions of ourselves and our morals.
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Barnes has a great style that is both rich and straightforward. It’s only 150 pages but it feels like a much longer book - and not in an ‘omg this is dragging’ kind of way, just that there is so much to unpack! Many people say that this is one that just gets better on a reread, and I concur. I wouldn’t be surprised if on a second reading, scouring the text for clues and foreshadowing of what’s to come, fully appreciating the cleverness of the structure, I might bump it up to 5 stars.
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If you love a good unreliable narrator and slightly ambiguous (but not frustratingly so) endings, then this one is for you!