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The Only Story

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The Only Story

By: Julian Barnes
Narrated by: Guy Mott
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About this listen

'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.'

First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at 19. At 19, he's proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention. As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen.

©2018 Julian Barnes (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Tear-jerking Inspiring
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19 year-old university student Paul fell in love with 48 year-old Susan at his home-village tennis club. Married to a bitter, onion-munching and progressively violent man, Susan seizes the chance of happiness with Paul. They ‘run away together’ as the expression then was and predictably it all in ends in tears. Their love-making becomes the ‘saddest sex of all’, Susan, isolated, become a hopeless alcoholic and Paul’s love turns to impotent pity and anger. He never marries.

So far so apparently dreary, but not when written by Julian Barnes. It’s the shifting of Paul’s narrative from first, second, and third person, and old man Paul reflecting on his young self’s experience of the ‘story’, subtly exploring the progressive damage wrought by their affair which makes this deceptively ordinary everyday story so disturbing, forcing listeners into analysing their own experiences of love and loss.

The effect of Susan’s disintegration on Paul is minutely observed, and the character of Susan’s elderly friend Joan, living alone with her dogs having got her life sadly wrong, are haunting. The narration is excellent, capturing a range of narrative voices young and old, male and female convincingly and sympathetically – a real achievement.

Love's Labour Lost?

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The evolution of a love story from innocence to decay...all the things I wanted to think but couldn't are said for me here.

Perfection

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Very well narrated and written. A simple yet engrossing story. Throughly enjoyed this very good book

Very enjoyable

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I found this book very moving and thought it was very skilfully written. Julian Barnes is fast becoming a firm favourite for me. If you're looking for cast iron realism then you'd be missing the point here (and probably of much fiction) I think. On the surface this is a tragic love story, but underlying it are themes to do with truth, memory, what is "real" and how time affects perceptions of events. The central character's perceptions throughout the story ebb and flow, and regardless of sex or background, I believe many will identify with the themes presented. I was struck by the changing levels of empathy the main character showed as we learn of his progression through life. In short, it's not so much about the story, whether or not it is "realistic" (whether or not you, if you are a young man, would love an older woman and so on) or finding out "what happens at the end" it's about what the story allows us to think about, or reveals in terms of our experiences and perceptions of time, memory, and what we think "truth" is. I found it to be a great experience and very thought provoking. I found myself thinking about my own past and present along with the book's narrative. It could almost be thought of as a love story in reverse now that I am thinking about how to describe it. We begin with something like a "happy ever after" and are taken on a familiar yet strange journey. I completely recommend this story.

Deeply moving

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This is a superbly narrated word perfect literary tour de force about a love affair reflected upon in later life from the perspective of one partner. Notwithstanding the fact that we only have the narrator's memories and perspective, it is a towering work of creative genius. I listened to it in two sittings and found it a deeply affecting tale of love won, lived and ultimately lost. If not a shattering observation on the entire human condition it is easily one of the most personal dissections of one person's story that I have ever heard. The story, the only story, being of his life's one great love. This is as heartbreaking and as 'real' as fiction can ever be.

Unreliable Memoirs

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