Pulse
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The stories in Julian Barnes' long-awaited third collection are attuned to rhythms and currents: of the body, of love and sex, illness and death, connections and conversations. Each character is bent to a pulse, propelled on by success and loss, by new beginnings and endings. In 'East Wind' a divorced
… More »The stories in Julian Barnes' long-awaited third collection are attuned to rhythms and currents: of the body, of love and sex, illness and death, connections and conversations. Each character is bent to a pulse, propelled on by success and loss, by new beginnings and endings. In 'East Wind' a divorced estate agent falls in love with a European waitress, but is tempted, despite his happiness, to investigate her past; in 'The Limner' a deaf painter discovers his patron's likeness after spending time among his staff. Anchored off the coast of Brazil, Garibaldi spies his future wife through a telescope, and in 'Marriage Lines', a widower returns to a remote Scottish Island to relive a favourite holiday. These are also lives in flux - in the 'stages, transitions, arguments; incompatibilities which grow' - as in the title story, where a man reflects on the break-up of his marriage, brought into new perspective by the actions of his parents; two writers, a 'good team', return from an event rehearsing familiar arguments; in 'Gardener's World', a couple bond, fall out and bond again over flowers and vegetable patches. Positioned in between are a series of evenings at 'Phil andamp; Joanna's', where among the topics of conversation - the environment, politics, the Britishness of marmalade, toilet graffitiand the perils of smoking - we witness the guests' lives shift in sections over the course of a year. Ranging from the domestic to the extraordinary, from the vineyards of Italy to the English seaside in winter, the stories in Pulse resonate and spark, each imbued with the humour, poignancy and perception that marks all Julian Barnes' work.This is an imaginative and expertly-constructed new collection from a master of the form.
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Add a CommentBarnes can write, but he has nothing to say. Banal and middle-class. The four stories at a dinner party were particularly annoying. Disappointing.
I loved The Lemon Table, Julian Barnes's other collection of stories, so was really looking forward to this book. I agree with The New York Times book reviewer, Michiki Kakutani, who said some of these should have been discards. In my opinion the best of these were not up to the weakest of his last collection.
Pulse is a new collection of 14 short stories by an elegant master of the form. These stories of mostly middle-aged British characters pulse with hope and optimism and demonstrate that Julian Barnes is an impeccable story teller. The first nine stories resonate with humour and wit. The dinner-party conversations of a group of old friends are exposed as smug, middle-aged liberal elites. Barnes has captured the sharp dialogue exchanges between these upper-class British dinner guests with a wicked sense of style. The stories reveal the way people misunderstand one another because of the ambiguities that often exist between lovers and friends. The five stories in the second half of the book are skillfully and delicately rendered around the senses of hearing, sight, touch, and taste as people get closer to one another as they try to connect. Barnes explores the themes of love, loss and death with acute observations that are deeply affecting. Pulse is a gem of a collection written by a very well respected author.
major disappointment. I felt Barnes was just transcribing dinner conversation.
"Marriage and relationships are the main preoccupation of Pulse, Julian Barnes’ third story collection and 17th book. In most cases, these are the relationships of middle-aged, middle-class British people much like Julian Barnes himself, or awkward second attempts bearing the patina of past betrayals, divorces and personal failings." Emily Donaldson Toronto Star