‘Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.’
These are the opening lines to Julian Barnes’s latest novel ‘The Only Story’. It sticks a pin in the book’s central concerns: our narrator, Paul, is 19 when he falls in love with 48 year old Susan at the local tennis club during the summer. The story tracks their 10 year relationship… and Susan’s decline into alcoholism.
We get a dual-reading of the story at once: the excitement from the adolescent-and-in-love (told in the present tense) against the sage 70-something year old narrator reflecting on love and life.
Touching on familiar Barnes territory (those who have read ‘The Sense of an Ending’ will recognise the lifestyle suburban living has to offer, and male characters interested in pursuing relationships with older females) and we also have a lot of philosophising: the way memories can rant and rave and repeat in your head and on to the page; the question of how reliable are our memories? And how our attitudes to love can shape our lives and how our lives can shape our attitude to love.
Susan, Paul’s lover, leaves her husband and two daughters (slightly – and awkwardly – older than Paul, who strangely doesn’t give them much thought or page-space in his memoirs) and they set up life together in London SE15 in the second section of the book. He enrols on a law course after university. She stays at home, drinking, which gets out of control. Our narrator is, frustratingly, not one for confrontation, and lets a lot slip by.
In desperation, Paul moves abroad, leaving Susan’s two daughters to manage her care. We get a vague glimpse of his various jobs and loves while he is in America but nothing very detailed.
Do we ever get an answer to the question posed at the start? He offers: ‘In my opinion, every love, happy or unhappy, is a real disaster once you give yourself over to it entirely.’ Yes, perhaps it is a little bleak. Although, can we blame him for arriving at such a conclusion? He is ostensibly alone, having lost all contact with his parents when he ran away to London after finishing his degree. He seems to live by a mantra once told to him: ‘If you lower your expectations, you can’t be disappointed.’
Although, happily such a mantra cannot be applied to this book. It’s very thought provoking (particularly when you learn that it seems to be loosely based on Barnes’s own life) and utterly absorbing.
Best enjoyed with a lovely cup of tea!
‘The Only Story’ by Julian Barnes was published on 1st February by Jonathan Cape. Hardback £16.99.
My copy was kindly sent to me (on my request) by the publisher to review.
