It might disrupt the banal reiterations of memory” “The diary was evidence it was –might be– corroboration. Tony’s own tale of his student days is quite unreliable. “e need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us.” istorians need to treat a participant’s own explanation of events with a certain scepticism.” The Sense of an Ending has two parts: the first one about the ‘imperfections of memory’ when Tony recalls his student days, and the second part about the ‘inadequacies of documentation’ when Tony hunts for Adrian’s diary. This sentence forms the structural backbone of the book. “History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” Tony’s efforts to get the diary from Veronica start the second part of the book and end in a complete reassessment of the initial story. In her will she passed it on to Tony, but Veronica is reluctant to hand it over.

The story Tony tells about his life gets challenged in the second part, when it turns out that Adrian had kept a diary, which surprisingly was in the possession of Veronica’s mother until her death. Tony, a man in his 60′s, looks back at his life: Four friends at school a one-year relationship with Veronica at university a humiliating visit to Veronica’s parents a split-up Veronica coming together with his best friend, Adrian Adrian’s suicide in a bathtub - that’s the first half of The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes’ award-winning novel.

Julian Barnes’ award-winning novel The Sense of an Ending explores the themes of history, memory and responsibility while bringing some clarity into Adrian’s death. “I don’t envy Adrian his death, but I envy him the clarity of his life,” says Tony Webster about his friend, who committed suicide when they were at university.

Tony webster the sense of an ending