Love, etc.

I picked up Love, Etc. after seeing it appear on one of the earlier NY Times Notable Books lists. I had read The Sense of An Ending and Loved it but had not read anything else by Barnes (yes I know I am supposed to read Flaubert's Parrot but haven't gotten around to it). I enjoyed Love, Etc. and found it to be just different enough to hold my attention although I have to admit that there were some parts that I felt were skim material-in particular Oliver's ruminations on life. The way Barnes sets out this book is to have each character take turn speaking to the reader. Each section is first denoted by the character's name and then he/she goes on to talk to you the reader in what can only be read as an intimate tone; telling you how they feel about the other characters. If there is a "main" character in the book it is Stuart--twice divorced and having recently moved back to England from the US where he set up a successful restaurant. He seeks out his first former wife Gillian who left him for his good friend Oliver who can only be described as a total oddball. Oliver has not made a success of himself over the intervening year and is basically hanging on by a thread. The book essentially takes you through the interpersonal relationship between Gillian, Stuart, and Oliver with some good cameos by Gillian's kids, her mom, Stuart's mom, and new girlfriend. I enjoyed the way Barnes put together the book. The dialogue from Oliver was hard to get through and to be honest I didn't enjoy but overall it was a good read and I recommend it.

This is a very clever sequel to "Talking it over" and if you have not read that book, you should do so before reading this one. Time has passed, and we meet Gillian, Stuart, Oliver, and a host of other characters that also speak their minds. The setting of these conversations, always one-on-one, is clearly a literary construction, may be perplexing to some readers. This choral approach also enriches the original storyline, and allows us to get a far more complete picture. It is amusing, it is interesting, it is sarcastic, it is poignant. As we delve into the minds and hearts of the main characters, and also see their pettiness, and what they do not tell us but is observed by their close friends and relatives, we can relate to the dificulties of loving and living in this century. This is a book for readers who enjoy situation and relationship dramas.

Good writer, clever premise, fresh style, but drones on without much happening, then ends with a cliff hanger promising a sequel which will also drone on without much happening. Actually, “cliff hanger” is the wrong word since it implies something exciting; there’s nothing exciting here.

This is Julian Barnes at his best. I had to finish it when I started. recommended highly.

Read this book after reading Talking it Over by same author

I enjoyed this novel. It is an amusing riff on changing partners by an extremely facile writer, full of word play.

Thought I had read the all but I guess not. Early great wit and writing. More recent works are better but not as much fun,.

I like JB writing style. However, this story is different from what I had expected.

This book is a sequel to the earlier volume `Talking it Over', and to understand `Love etc.' it is almost essential to have read the former. There we are introduced to the three main characters, Oliver, Stuart and Gillian, and how their lives interact over a period of years. At the end of `Talking it Over', Gillian, formerly married to Stuart, is now married to Oliver, and after a brief time living in France has return to England with her husband and their two children. In the interval, Stuart relocated to New York and started a new life.Ten year have now past and Stuart, divorced from his American wife, has returned to England. He is no longer a rather weak, colourless individual, but is more decisive and now runs his own successful organic food distribution company. His love for Gillian is unabated and he contacts her again to `rescue' her from what he sees as a mistaken marriage to Oliver. He insinuates himself into their lives, letting them rent the former marital home, and even gives Oliver a job. Although Gillian is initially resistant to these events she comes to accept them, particularly as she is the sole breadwinner with her picture restoration work. Oliver slowly sinks into a deep depression as he realises that Stuart is not going to financially support his unrealistic `projects', and his suspicions about Stuart's motives and Gillian's loyalty deepens.The format is the same as used successfully in `Talking it Over': a series of monologues by the main characters spoken to the reader, supplemented by ones from supporting characters, such as Gillian's mother and her art restoration assistant. These soliloquies are utterly realistic. Through them we again see how each interprets their past and present lives often in very different ways. It is almost inevitable that things will not end well. Indeed they do not, although Gillian and Stuart present the interpretation of the event that provokes this in starkly contrasting ways. There is no absolute truth. At the end we are left to make up our own minds about the nature and importance of love, and the wisdom or not of trying to rekindle a former love after so long.

While I found the writing style of this novel to be an achievement and at times effective, I found flipping between the characters’ perspectives slightly tiring. I have previously enjoyed Barnes’ use of first person narration in ‘A Sense of an Ending’ and ‘The Only Story’ and found this novel not to meet those standards.The plot I found to be a bit tedious and uninteresting - I found most of the characters to be unlikeable which always restricts the extent to which I enjoy a book.

I usually love (pun intended) Julian Barnes' writing. But whilst this was all very clever it's a sequel that didn't add anything to Talking It Over. Same techniques which therefore don't bedazzled on their own, and apart from one shocking volte face, nothing, well, happens. Better to read The Only Story again

Love etc is JB's follow-up to Talking It Over - the blackly comic love-triangle tale of the bizarre lives of Gillian, Stuart and Oliver (plus a a few others). The fly-on-the-wall docu-interviews wear a bit thin in this second book but the bleak pscho rom-com has intellectual Tom Sharpe credentials. Barnes's prose is always crisp and entertaining and, despite flogging the same format, his insights in the human condition remain oddly compelling.

enjoyable and satisfying Thanks Julian.