Elizabeth Finch: Julian Barnes (Blog Tour & Review)

Date of Reading: 10/04/2023

Author: Julian Barnes

Publisher: Vintage 

Publication Date: February 23, 2023

Rating: 3/5

(This review is part of the blog tour organised by Random Things Tours)

About the book:

From the Booker Award-winning writer, a swift narrative that turns on the death of a vivid and particular woman, and becomes the occasion for a man's deeper examination of love, friendship and the mysteries of biography.

"I'll remember Elizabeth Finch when most other characters I've met this year have faded." -- John Self, The Times (UK)

This novel of unrequited platonic love takes aim at the singular character of the exacting Elizabeth Finch. When Neil, adrift in his 30s, takes her adult education class on Culture and Civilization, he becomes deeply fascinated by this private, withholding yet commanding woman. While other personal relationships and even his children drift from his grasp, Neil hangs tight to Finch and her unorthodox application of history and philosophy to the practical matters of daily living. As much as he wants to figure her out intellectually, he want to please her. Both are impossible.

In Neil's story, readers are treated to everything they cherish in Barnes: his eye for the unconventional forms love can take, a compelling swerve into nonfiction (this time through Neil's obsessive study of Julian the Apostate, following the trail of crumbs Elizabeth Finch has left for him), and the forcefully moving undercurrent of history and biography as both nourishment and guide in our daily lives. Finch is a character who challenges the reader as much as her students to think for themselves, and leaves us searching for a way to deal with one of her simplest of ideas: "Some things are up to us, and some things are not up to us."

Review:

        I have read 'The Sense of an Ending' before and it is what pulled me into his latest novel. The story of a teacher . . . I wouldn't want to miss that one. There are not many that appreciate and consider this field worthy to create a story. After all, a teacher's life is not as exciting as a doctor's or lawyer's even though we have our battles to fight. So I cherish every story out there about us.

        Elizabeth Finch is everything that I imagined and much more. She is an enigma and remains so even to our narrator till the end. A role model to be aspired to, but a hard one to achieve. The first part gives you a peep into her classes and along with her students, we too begin to ponder. The second part is rather dry with all the details on Julian the Apostate. It looked more like the author using Elizabeth Finch as a tool to shove onto the readers his critique of Christianity. In the last part, we are back to the main plot, again trying to unravel the life of our eponymous teacher.

        It is not everyone's cup of tea, that is sure. And you won't find any surprising twists like in 'The Sense of an Ending' here. But if you are in the mood to read fiction that is more like non-fiction, then you are in the right place.

Meet the author:

Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and three books of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and Nothing To Be Frightened Of, which won the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize in Russia. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.