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The Only Story by Julian Barnes - 4.5 stars - My Review

This book tells the story of Paul Roberts, starting at age nineteen, when he meets and falls in love with Susan MacLeod, three decades his senior, at a tennis club. Susan is unhappily married and has two daughters around his age. It is set in the suburbs of London in the 1960s. The narrative is divided into three parts. In part one, the romance develops; in part two, Susan develops an addiction to alcohol and their relationship changes; in part three, we learn of what happened later in their lives.

This is a book for those who favor character-driven novels. It is a sad story about love, loss, and memory. It is surprisingly engrossing for one that focuses on the internal world of a young man’s mind. We follow Paul’s thoughts and rationalizations as he analyzes his and Susan’s relationship. He makes notes on the definition of love. He becomes obsessed, and his obsession has a lasting influence. He thinks he can “rescue� Susan, but as we learn more about her background, the reader can see the futility of Pauls� efforts, though he cannot.

As the novel moves along, the narrative voice changes from first to second to third person, reflecting the ways a person’s thinking changes at different stages of life. By the end, we find Paul trying to unpick the past and figure out what he could have done differently. I have now read four of Barnes� works and find his writing consistently outstanding.

“Things, once gone, can't be put back; he knew that now. A punch, once delivered, can't be withdrawn. Words, once spoken, can't be unsaid. We may go on as if nothing has been lost, nothing done, nothing said; we may claim to forget it all; but our innermost core doesn't forget, because we have been changed forever.�

4.5