A novel that beautifully captures the essence of aging and love. The language and descriptions are exquisite, and the pacing is masterfully crafted. The story starts slowly, where the narrator is young and has plenty of time, and quickens towards the end, keeping the reader engaged throughout.

The characters are well-defined, and the descriptions are rich and vivid, making it easy to visualise the story. The book is quick and easy to read, yet poignant and thought-provoking. I was moved by the story and found myself thinking about the characters long after I finished reading.

I love stories about first love, especially when it is told through flashback sequences or during a character's reflection on a particular time in their life. And I am a fan of Barnes's writing - it is so thought-provoking and profound - so this was the perfect novel for me.

I love how the story bounced around a little, chasing memories as they rose to the surface and then retreated again. This is a very introspective story; one that is lacking in real drama, but brimming with humanness.

Strangely uninvolving story about love, (the only story), set in the second half of the twentieth century. Our self-confessed unreliable narrator returns to his middle class suburban home in the university holidays and falls in love with Susan, an older, married woman. I never got a real sense of Susan, especially as the years went by, and, without that connection, the book didn’t work for me.

Looking back on the love he experienced with an older woman, Paul relives both what it meant to him and also how it shaped him. Barnes writes with real sensitivity so we can all recognise how deeply Paul was influenced and empathise with the struggles he faced in coming to terms with the obligations love brings.
There are plenty of fun moments, such as when he tries to be brave - and fails lamentably - or when he seeks advice and sympathy from a somewhat drunken Joan who is the very last person to dish it out. These contrast with the angst and soul-searching that Paul increasingly endures as the years roll by.
Barnes has the knack of seeming to write spontaneously. On occasions you read comments made as if the significance of a word has just been recognised for the very first time. For example, he uses "wedlock" at one point, and a moment later puts "wed-lock" in brackets which has the effect of emphasising the gravitas of the word to reader and character alike.
The Only Story is a book to admire. The storyline appears simple but only a very accomplished author can, without apparent effort, turn it into such a multi-layered and deeply thought-provoking novel.

Many books tell the story of a romantic affair but very few let us know what happens next. The gift of love comes with responsibilities. Beautifully written, I found this book moving and very, very human.

I liked this book at the start and liked the idea of the younger man having an affair with an older woman and thought that it would be funny and interesting.
I was disappointed once the story got to part 2 - I found the story boring and only continued on with it because I was reading it for a book club.
I will be interested to hear what the book club thought of it as maybe I am.missing the point of the story.
I didn't like the way Paul referred to himself as 'you' a lot of the time.
I don't think that I would recommend this book.

This book made me feel angry for some reason which I am still trying to work out, so this is my third try at a review. Maybe I just didn't "get" it - I did not "get" A Sense of an Ending even after I had read it three times, but this one made me want to throw it against the wall (although you can't do that with a Kindle). They have very similar themes - an older man looking back to past events, rambling pages and pages of analysis and commentary on every event, word and action that happened then, trying to make sense of it. It was a cold analysis which did not show any love, although it was tragic. Poor Susan was allowed to disintegrate into alcoholism, depression and mental illness with very little help fron anyone. Her point of view was not shown at all, apart from a few catchhrases and quips. The setting (late 50s? stereotypical middle class village life) felt very dated, claustrophobic and irrelevant to today. One major irritation was the switching from first to second to third person in the narrative. I think it was supposed to separate his thoughts from the past to his thoughts now, but it didn't work.
I guess that this really is Barnes' Only Story now (ruminating on past regrets,) and that he will continue to tell it in increasingly dull ways in future novels. I won't be reading any of them.

Barnes kicks off the narrative with the question, “Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less and suffer the less?” In one of his previous books, ’The Sense of An Ending’ he explored a man who chose not to love and ended up miserable; this book is about a man who does love but ends up miserable. I love Julian Barnes’ writing for its philosophy and thoughtful quotes, and there were plenty of these. The second section, where he describes a descent into alcoholism and mental illness in excruciating, though not sensationalising, detail, is brilliantly observed.

As a novel, however, it fell a little flat for me. Barnes’ insights, as ever, are fascinating, but both characters were unlikeable, the love story never quite convincing. The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal had similar themes but communicated via character and plot rather than philosophy and observation. In reading them both at the same time I found de Waal’s ultimately more satisfactory and memorable. Recommended for its intelligence, but not an enjoyable read. Quote from Julian Barnes, but read Kit de Waal for pleasure.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the book in exchange for an honest review.
I realised after I had requested this book , which I have had on my list for some months, that I did not really like books by Julian Barnes. I did try to read this book but I found it condescending and the character totally unlike able. I am sure that many readers enjoy the work of Julian Barnes, unfortunately I am not one of them.

I enjoyed the first part of this novel chronicling the love between 19 year old Paul and 48 year old Susan, and the upset this caused in 1960's suburbia. However, as I got further into the story I realised the characters had little depth and got a bit bored. Hopefully Mr Barnes will return to form with his next book

I seem to be developing a Marmite relationship with Julian Barnes. I loved his early work and ‘The Sense of an Ending’, but had difficulty with his last novel ‘The Noise of Time’. So I approached ‘The Only Story’ with trepidation.
My stomach sank as I read the first page. The first paragraph poses a question: ‘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.” A pertinent question to which each of us has our own private answer. My difficulty with the first few pages is the lack of characterization; because it is told in the first person, we do not know who is speaking, there is no context. That of course comes later, and a few pages in its starts to warm up with the description of a tennis match. But ultimately I could not shake the perception that it was Julian Barnes the man speaking, not a fictional character, in the way American authors such as Wolfe and Roth seem to become characters in their own novels.
But this is a lesson in patience. I read on and the story started to come alive as the relationship of Paul and Susan unfolds. A teenager and a woman in her forties; it is first love for Paul but, as ‘The Only Story’ is told completely from his perspective, we don’t know what it is to Susan. We only know what she tells him, not what she thinks. It is telling that one day after finishing the book, I could remember the name of his character but not hers.
The story is told in three parts: in the first flush of love; in the difficult times that follow, and as Paul looks back in later life. Barnes changes narrative voice from the immediate first person for nineteen-year old Paul, to a combination of first and second in the middle section; and the more distant third person in the final part, symbolic of the passing years and perhaps of pushing emotions and guilt away. The turning points in the novel are the turning points in the relationship, as love turns to familiarity, to duty and becomes a burden. I think the author intends ‘The Only Story’ as a rumination on the nature of love, when in fact it is an account of a teenager learning that young love does not stay young love.
The writing is beautiful to read, as always with Barnes, but as the story progressed the pace slackened and I grew tired of repetition. I finished it wishing I had felt more engaged with the other characters in the story; Susan’s husband is a peripheral character who behaves oddly, and I would have loved to see more from her caustic friend Joan.
A sad story, but not a new one.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

I'd not heard of this author before but this is a story with a real heart and different to everything else out there. Can't wait to read more. Thanks for the ARC.

I do enjoy Julian Barnes, but found this one a bit the same as the others. I liked the story, liked both Paul and Susan and enjoyed the wry humour. However there were many places where the author goes on a bit and, as ever, seems to be obsessed with sex.

This is tender, emotional and beautifully written. Having not read anything by this author previously I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised. Recommend!

The book depicts a strangely bloodless affair between nineteen-year-old Paul and Susan, nearly thirty years his senior, who meet at a tennis club. I wasn’t necessarily after febrile sex scenes but JB can depict sexual infatuation – Gillian and Oliver in Talking it Over - and in this novel what binds this couple together is not always apparent.
There are what feels like narrative glitches – the first summer holiday when the affair starts, for example, seems to go on for ever. The tennis club soon finds out about the affair and the two are ejected – in a typically English manner that is not explicit on the reason – and yet others don’t seem too bothered – Paul’s mother acts as occasional taxi service, and Susan’s husband – “Elephant Pants” – endlessly receives Paul in his house and garden, for a long time almost without comment.
Where the book works brilliantly is the depiction of women of a certain age, class and time. Susan’s friend Joan, bitterly consoling herself with alcohol and dogs, is a marvellous creation, and Susan herself becomes alcoholic and veers tragically into dementia. “What is her place in the world?” Barnes/Paul asks rhetorically at one point.
The title is also right on the money, there is only one story, often, when we recount the narratives of those we know; when we describe our friends’ lives to other people.

(Nearly 4.5 stars) A familiar story: a May–December romance fizzles out. A sad story: an idealistic young man who swears he’ll never be old and boring has to face that this romance isn’t all he wanted it to be. A love story nonetheless. And, as Paul believes, we each only really get one love story, and it will without a doubt be the defining story of our lives. When he met Susan, a 48-year-old, married mother of two, at the local tennis club when he was 19, Paul had no way of knowing that the little things that made up their escalating relationship – the nicknames, the inside jokes, the intimate habits – could be swallowed up by years of depression, alcoholism and dementia. This narrative is partly the older Paul’s way of salvaging what happy memories he can, but also partly an extended self-defense: he did all he could for Susan, but it could never be enough. Barnes takes what could have been (and, indeed has been interpreted by many readers as) a dreary and repetitive story line and makes it an exquisitely plangent progression: first-person into second-person into third-person.

“the one thing I was not going to do with my existence was end up in suburbia with a tennis wife and 2.4 children”

“You ask yourself: is staying with her an act of courage on your part, or an act of cowardice? Perhaps both? Or is it just an inevitability?”

“His love had gone, had been driven out, month by month, year by year. But what shocked him was that the emotions which replaced it were just as violent as they love which had previously stood in his heart.”

This is my favorite Barnes novel since Arthur & George; I was never that fond of The Sense of an Ending, even though it won him the (deserved, if only for lifetime achievement) Booker Prize. It’s also one of the stand-out novels of 2018 for me so far. The picture of romantic youth shading into cynical but still hopeful middle age really resonates, as do the themes of unconventionality, memory, addiction and pity. And the last few pages, when Paul sees Susan for the last time and contrasts what he knows he should think and feel with what he actually does, are just incredible.

Julian Barnes was one of the first authors I was recommended while I was working as a bookseller. Until then my reading was mostly grounded in sci-fi, horror and fantasy. It was either my first or second week at Waterstones when Sense of an Ending was published. My manager’s enthusiasm for him sold it to me even though it wasn’t normally something I would have picked up.

I adored Sense of an Ending and tore through it in one sitting. It was the first book ever that made me cry so it’s stayed with me ever since. I’ve tried to keep up with him but for some reason, The Noise of Time did nothing for me so I hoped that The Only Story would draw me back into his work.

“Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less and suffer the less?”

Paul is a nineteen-year-old university student back in his quaint English village home and dying of boredom. To keep him entertained and in with the right crowd, his parents sign him up to the local tennis club. There he meets Susan Macleod, a 48-year-old married woman and slowly their friendships drifts into an affair. Throughout their time together he genuinely does not seem to feel the age gap, continuing to lament on the ‘horrors’ of old age and avoiding any responsibility that comes with growing up.

Instead of denying their relationship completely, it is hidden in plain site and Paul often eats with Susan and her husband (a caricature of an evil villain, obese, violent and rude) in their own home. He meets their two daughters, even having friends stay over on their living room floor.

Instead of it being a summer fling, the affair lasts for years, leading to inevitable hurdles as Paul wallows in his youthful lack of responsibility and Susan feels the pressure of society and her family.
The book is broken down into three parts and the final section sees James look back on the relationship that moulded his adult life. Just remember, real life never ends like the movies.


The Only Story is a devastating but wonderful novel that has once again solidified Julian Barnes as an author whose work I need in my life. You could argue that his white, middle-class, privileged male lead is uninspired and I wouldn’t argue with you but it’s what he does and he does it brilliantly.
It’s the small, reflective sentences that Julian Barnes can drop in without warning, a hammer to the heart so sudden that it leaves you feeling bruised.

'So, now that I am older, I realize that this is one of my human functions: to allow the young to believe that I envy them. Well, obviously I do in a brute matter of being dead first, but otherwise not. And when I see pairs of young lovers, vertically entwined on street corners, or horizontally positioned on a blanket in the park, the main feeling it arouses in me is a kind of protectiveness. No, not pity: protectiveness. Not that they would want my protection. And yet - and this is curious - the more bravado they show in their behaviour, the stronger my response. I want to protect them from what the world is probably going to do to them, and from what they will probably do to one another.'

It’s paragraphs like the above that make this novel.

What I did want more of from The Only Story, was Susan. The little snapshots of her life that you’re given only tease you with a sad yet interesting life, never delving deep enough into them for her to be fully satisfying as a rounded character. Maybe that’s the point, that Paul only sees her as an add-on to his life rather than a being in her own right (which may be confirmed by the lack of consideration he seems to have for the relationship she has with her daughters) but with simple and privileged background, you can’t help but wonder if she may have been able to outshine him.

The Only Story will leave you feeling mellow and introspective but in a positive way. If you enjoyed Sense of an Ending then this novel should definitely move you as it did me. I'm so happy that Julian Barnes has done it again, now I get to look forward to his next one.

Very slow clunky read, that I did not enjoy. Characters very unlikeable and I just did not engage with the story. Though I have wuite enjoyed other books by this author.

A few years ago, I truly loved Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending, and I was hoping this new novel would similarly enthral me, and on that front, I was a bit disappointed. Somehow, it just didn’t quite draw me in. Having said that, there were some beautiful, poignant moments, mostly in the second part of the book, when Susan is descending into alcoholism and Paul is wrestling with what he can do for his great love.
The novel tackles the central question of whether it is better to love more and suffer more, or love less and suffer less, but I don’t think there’s really an answer to this. It’s all a matter of perspective and outlook. Paul, the central character, loves deeply, and he suffers deeply for it.

I found Barnes’ narrative shifts interesting. Part one is told in first person, when Paul is young and experiencing the love of his life. Part two, told in second person, is where everything goes horribly wrong. Part three is told in third person, which gives it the distance it deserves. In this part, Paul looks back at the affair that defined his life from a distance of decades.

This short, bittersweet novel is definitely worth a read, but for me, it’s not the author’s best work.

This is a story about first love. Paul is thrown together with Susan at the tennis club and their relationship begins after they have played tennis together on several occasions. The book is in three parts. The first part covers the excitement of the early relationship. The second part covers the routines of daily life, living together, growing older together and the terrible consequences for Susan based on the choices she has made. Finally, Paul reflects on his life and love as an older man.

This is a beautifully written account of first love, covering many decades. It is happy in some parts but terribly, terribly sad in other parts. Highly recommended. Thank you to Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.