The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

A lively discussion ensued after reading this book, and although we ended the evening agreeing to differ, we all agreed we enjoyed the discussion!

Some felt they could connect with the early part of this book, the glimpses into the school life of a group of young men growing up in the sixties with no experience of relationships with girls, and the in jokes and insecurities that prevail.
  As the book develops through the eye of the narrator, Tony, there was a feeling from some that there was not enough development of character and story, that the sparse anecdotal style was not enough to maintain interest. Others felt that this was an honest depiction of how memories are laid down and recollected, and how the recording of history “accurately” is necessarily flawed and subjective.
We all expressed some irritation (as a group of women at a certain age!) with the narrator’s lack of emotional intelligence, and agreed that he was not particularly likeable, but at the same time his honesty  was disarming.
  The book takes on a new energy with the advent of the legacy from Tony’s erstwhile girlfriend’s mother, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding this prompted an interesting divergence of opinion within the group. Theories as to why the legacy was left to Tony, what may have prompted the suicide of Adrian, the “too clever” and intense member of the friendship group, took us well into cake-and-coffee time. One of us expressed that she didn’t care enough about the characters, who were all so unpleasant, to hypothesise at all!
  Others of us could identify with the angst ridden feelings evoked particularly in the early part of the book, vividly expressed. Whereas the gaps and lack of background narrative irritated some but engaged others in our group, the outcome was an interesting debate about how we remembered our own history, many of us recalling different experiences of a similar era , how we might have recorded it then and with hindsight now.
  As the chooser of this book, I agree very much with the opinion that this is a book that changes on re-reading, and that having read it again my empathy with the characters changed. Julian Barnes economy of style and lack of description made me experience his “snapshot” characterisations from different perspectives, which I found both stimulating and salutory. It is one of those books that has, for me, a lasting impact on how I consider both personal recollections and received historical accounts.