I am not at all surprised that this book won the Man Booker Award.
The Author Julian Barnes is just three years younger than I am. In other words, my brother Barath’s age.
In this book, I could relate to many of the things that he writes about from his school and college days as well as his retirement days and the story itself is so plausible that as soon as I finished reading it, I rang up Barath in London and asked him to read it. More than my relating to the events, he having lived most of his life in the UK would be better able to.
It is a mystery or a thriller of sorts, and a book that I could not put down once I had started to read. The characterisations is brilliant and the story unfolds to a remarkable crescendo.
I understand that the book is being made into a film and I look forward to seeing that too when it is released. It will be interesting to see how this so heavily people and monologue oriented story will be adapted to a film.
Ps. I have just read that Paul Beatty’s The Sellout has won the Man Booker Prize for this year. From all accounts another very unusual work. Shall get a copy soon and read.