* Book Review: Pulse by Julian Barnes
Posted by the editors on Sunday, 29 January 2012
Book Review: Pulse (2011)(collection of short stories) by Julian Barnes (Flaubert’s Parrot (1984, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), England, England (1998, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Arthur & George (2005, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), The Sense of an Ending (2011, winner of the Booker Prize). Pulse is a collection of wonderful short stories taking the pulse of couples, and in which couples are the pulse, the life blood. From parents, to newly weds, to first dates, to esoteric historical, from sharp, well-to-do couples, to once-hippie aging couples, to ’til-death-do-us-part couples, to couples divorcing within a year of marriage, from hetero to homo, from love to sex, from complicity to antagonism, from no-strings to all things, Pulse throws its net wide, not that there aren’t an infinity of couples outside of the net, each being, by definition unique, and unfathomable, no matter what we know. In fact, what is love? And, to paraphrase and twist, a bit, Raymond Carver, what (don’t) we talk about when we (don’t) talk about love; pain, fun, sharing, loss, thrill, support, tenderness and grief. A must-read for anyone who is, was, or will be part of a couple, or ever wished, or regretted, that they were part of a couple. And for those solitaries who just wonder about it all. Marvelous, thoughtful, entertaining and more. (PR)
See our post on the collection of short stories by Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
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top image: The Guardian
