Love, Etc. (Vintage International) - Softcover

Barnes, Julian

3.71

3,910 ratings by Goodreads

9780375725883: Love, Etc. (Vintage International)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375725881 ISBN 13: 9780375725883

Publisher: Vintage, 2002

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Twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Julian Barnes continues to reinvigorate the novel with his pyrotechnic verbal skill and playful manipulation of plot and character. In Love, etc. he uses all the surprising, sophisticated ingredients of a delightful farce to create a tragicomedy of human frailties and needs.

After spending a decade in America as a successful businessman, Stuart returns to London and decides to look up his ex-wife Gillian. Their relationship had ended years before when Stuart's witty, feckless, former best friend Oliver stole her away. But now Stuart finds that the intervening years have left Oliver's artistic ambitions in ruins and his relationship with Gillian on less than solid footing. When Stuart begins to suspect that he may be able to undo the results of their betrayal, he resolves to act. Written as an intimate series of crosscutting monologues that allow each character to whisper their secrets and interpretations directly to the reader, Love, etc. is an unsettling examination of confessional culture and a profound refection on the power of perspective.

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Review:

Oliver, Stuart and Gillian have been friends and lovers. It's ten years since they last met, and a lot has changed. For a start, Oliver has married Gillian, and Stuart, his erstwhile best friend, hates him for it. Not just because Stuart was once married to Gillian but because he still loves her. His last memory of Gillian was of seeing her, covered in blood, after a vicious row with Oliver, and he has never relinquished his vow to rescue her. Under the guise of repairing old friendships--"all blood under the bridge"--mild-mannered Stuart insinuates himself into their life, offering advice, support, even giving Oliver a job. As Oliver is manoeuvred into a crippling depression, Stuart unveils his deadly masterplan.

In Love, etc., the sequel to Talking It Over, Barnes adopts the same technique he used previously, allowing his characters to speak their innermost thoughts and secrets directly to the reader. The result is a bewitchingly intimate excursion into a taut triangle of betrayal and jealousy. With painstaking detail, he creates a vibrant portrait of modern love--as funny as it is cruel, as absurd as it is deep. Few contemporary writers can portray Middle England, with all its temptations, so darkly.-- Matthew Baylis

Review:

"An alarmingly perfect novel . . .. Barnes's verbal mimicry is inventive, accomplished, revelatory, and also fun." -The New York Review of Books

"Lively, lucid, ricocheting with wryly observed commentary on the human condition."-Philadelphia Inquirer

"Painfully astute . . .. Barnes sharpens his insights with his penetrating wit and verbal virtuosity."-The Washington Post
"Julian Barnes...[is an] ironist, artificer, psychologically flirtatious pool shark, a maestro who runs the table with his Rashomon variations."-The New York Times Book Review

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