Did my best to persevere with this one but i felt like it rambled on too much without enough impact in the story.

I can’t understand how Julian Barnes has passed me by as a writer and I am deeply indebted to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book and for introducing me to him.

On the face of it, this is a novel about an unconventional relationship between Paul and Susan, but the unconventionality goes beyond their age difference to uncover a depth of feeling and connection rarely explored.

The depth, emotional intelligence, and beautifully communicated circumstances in this novel raise it head and shoulders above other love stories. And the unwittingly imagined image of their relationship which comes to Paul, will haunt my mind for a time to come.

Beautifully written but so accessible, I recommend this warmly and enthusiastically. I am off to read his back catalogue ...

Narrator Paul tells us the story of his romance with Susan that started on the tennis court when he was 19 and she 48, as he tells us it's his only story.

The most interesting thing about this book is the voice of narrator Paul. Because we only get his point of view I constantly wondered what the rest of the characters really thought about the situation. What were Susan's motives, how did her daughters deal with the relationship, what did his parents think? For a long time I thought this lack of circumstantial information was detrimental to the novel, but in the end it reinforced for me the idea that this is Paul's story. Not just his only story, but according to him the only real version of the story.

What further ties the narration to Paul, besides his viewpoint, is the trick of the changing perspective. The first part of the story is told by a first-person narrator. It gives us the events as experienced by the confident youth in the middle of living his live, living his love. The second part shifts to second-person narration. This to me sounded like a person talking to himself, convincing his former self that he had done everything he could under the circumstances. Then the last part shifts again to a third-person narration. The last part clearly displays most distance, as if the whole affair is definitely a thing of the past that has little to do with the narrators current life.

Definitely a good and quick read, but it took me a while to let it sink in.

Beautifully realised narrative. Poignant and special.

Very well written but not my type of book. I expected to like this book more than I did. I could not get into it the whole way through. I read all of it but was not caught up in the story at any point.

Such beautiful writing, peppered with reflections and insights on love and relationships. Yet I couldn't warm up to the subject, to their relationship, to anything that's going on in the book...

The first, second and third parts of ’The Only Story’ are told in the first, second and third person respectively as a nineteen-year-old student, Paul Casey, embarks on an affair with a woman thirty years his senior after they meet at a tennis club. Barnes’ latest novel shares many of the same themes as his Man Booker Prize winning novella ‘The Sense of an Ending’, notably a preoccupation with memory and first love, although I’m not sure it sustains quite the same level of power overall. However, there is some fine writing here and Barnes is particularly good at exposing the emotions and thoughts we would rather not acknowledge

Love and growing up

This is a coming of age story unlike most you've probably read. Julian Barnes writes of a young man, Paul, experiencing his first real and proper love. Yet, there is little 'proper' about it, at least not according to the opinions of his parents or the inhabitants of his small suburban town.

As the reader, we get the sense that Paul is a rather neurotic character. We are offered an insight into his reflections of his youth, but also later years. Barnes conveys Paul's innocent youth exceptionally; this novel reads like an understated love story written in a natural diarist's prose. Paul jumps sporadically between moments in time, as thoughts and reflections reach him. I quite liked this, it made his record of his memories more honest in that it illustrated the nature of memory itself. Though he, Paul, reminds us frequently that he is telling only the truth. He was committing his story to the page, perhaps to never forget it. Perhaps to win his battle against his conscience. He is the narrator but also the subject. Will he be remembered as the hero or the coward? Will his choices be seen as justified?

I think more than anything, it was remarkable how Barnes wrote of Paul's maturity. From the beginning, Paul appears idealistic, naïve but only slightly aware of it. He has a hard time defining love, we see his definitions evolve. We, as the readers, can understand him. We understand his aversion towards living the lifestyle of his parents, he embraces rebellion but has no concrete plans. Yet he regards himself to be practical, as well as extraordinary. He believes the same of his relationship with his lover. We see how later circumstances shape his character and it's fascinating. A truly moving novel, intimate and wise.

This is a rather sad and drawn out story of love and it’s consequences. It is, as you would expect, cleverly and beautifully written, but I found it somewhat depressing. Instead of wanting to read it in one sitting, I kept putting it down and having to push myself to return to it.

Paul is only 19 when he falls in love with 47 year old Susan. Little does he realise the lifelong impact his first love will have on him. I quite enjoyed the book, although it was rather depressing! There was rather too much philosophising about the meaning of love for my liking. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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*Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read Julian Barnes' Man Booker winning novel The Sense of an Ending last year and frankly did not get along with it. However, Julian Barnes is a beloved British author and I wanted to give him another chance. Though I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, I ended up listening to it on audiobook from my library (I'm trying to use audiobooks to get through NetGalley books because I have more time to listen to an audiobook with my long commute than I do to read an ebook). Unfortunately I feel that I wouldn't have persevered with this novel if I was reading the ebook because simply put, I just didn't like it.

I found all of the characters to be arrogant and though flawed, I could almost see the author deliberately making them so to make them seem more well-rounded. At no point did I feel like I was listening to a novel; it always felt like an autobiography. This was probably due to the depth of the memories that the protagonist is relaying. Though I liked some of the author's musings on love and life, I found that the plot had very odd pacing and jumped around a lot, repeating phrases and even anecdotes throughout. Some might say that this is the way memory works, and indeed the protagonist says this at the beginning of the book, but personally I didn't find the story compelling enough to get away with this repetition.

The most infuriating thing about this book is the perspective. Throughout the book there are several shifts in the narrative perspective between first person, second person and third person, though all talking about the protagonist Paul so it seemed odd and almost like it was a mistake instead of a device used purposefully.

I think that some of the issues dealt with in this book, such as alcoholism and domestic violence, were done in a very realistic way which was good to see but overall I found this difficult to get through and it left me with similar feelings to when I read The Sense of an Ending so unfortunately I don't think I'll be reading any more Julian Barnes.

Sweeping, soaring novel on the meaning of love at different ages. The book will stay with me for a long time, I found myself immersed and unable to put it down. Will recommend to all my friends.

I have read some of Julian Barnes' other novels and I am always impressed by his writing style and engaging voice. This book is rather different in that it seems almost autobiographical and goes over the central relationship in several different ways throughout the narrative: firstly he explains the meeting and main trajectory of the affair with the puppy-ish perspective of a young man in the first throes of love. He later dissects and analyses their time together with an older, but not necessarily more mature eye and details how it has coloured and changed his later life. It starts with a lively carefree lightness, which is interesting and absorbing. However it becomes more self-indulgent and rather mawkish in places, perhaps as befits an older, more jaded perspective. An interesting start, but ending in rather an unsatisfying way for me.

After reading Penguin Books’ extract from Man Booker prize winner Julian Barnes’ latest novel, I felt compelled to request the full e-book. The Only Story is his 13th novel and feels so authentic and tormented that I sought to find out if it was autobiographical. Anyone who has experienced the thunderbolt of love will know how hard it is to convey in words the pain and intensity it invariably brings. We are told “Everyone has their love story. Everyone. It may have been a fiasco, it may have fizzled out, it may never even have got going, it may have been all in the mind, that doesn’t make it any less real. Sometimes, it makes it more real”. Anyone who has ever tried to express how unique and unprecedented their love is, inevitably finds words and expressions are totally inadequate to describe their experience.
The Only Story opens with a philosophical question, “Would you rather love the more and suffer the more; or love the less and suffer the less?” In a sense this sets the tone and conveys the depth of suffering our protagonist, Paul, has experienced, because as he says, if you can control how much you love, then it isn’t love. But can there be a winning option or do both choices have equally regretful outcomes?
Told in three parts, the story begins in the first person singular, by our protagonist, Paul, a bored 19 year old university student, back at his parents’ home at the end of term in the leafy London suburbs. Persuaded to join the local tennis club, he comes across Mrs Susan Macleod, a charismatic, sunny and vivacious 48 year old where their pairing together in the mixed doubles leads to a decades long love affair. In the naivety of youth and in the prime of his life, he feels that his love for Susan is absolute and is immersed in the joyous feelings he has for her, devoid of the consequences. As he puts it, “The lover in rapture doesn’t want to ‘understand’ love, but to ....feel the intensity .... the entirely justifiable egotism”.
Whereas Part 1 is told in quite an upbeat tone, Part 2 changes to a bleaker period in his life where his tone is more melancholy and intimate. The narrative segues from 1st person to second person as if to put the reader in his shoes. This is where he describes Susan’s downward slide into alcoholism and paranoia, the impact this has on an uncomprehending, young man, who is overwhelmed by what is happening.
In the third section, told in the 3rd person, Paul is approaching old age and looks back over his life, consumed with trying to understand once and for all the truths and fallacies of love and life and our subjectively flawed recall of it. He says, “‘understanding’ love is for later ...’understanding’ love is for when the heart has cooled”. He agonises over the decision he had made to “hand Susan back” to her daughters, the cold reality of living with a chronic alcoholic proving too much. Does Paul, in his mission to get closer to the truth of what happened, succeed in giving an honest, if not an elusively objective account? The elephant in the room is that in all his retellings of his story, he has omitted to face up to the part he played in Susan’s downfall, or in the references he makes to it, does so only superficially. He glosses over his provocative behaviour when he was sleeping over at Susan’s home while her husband was still there, his initial reliance on her for money, his corralling her to leave her family home and daughters, the effect this must have had on her, her daughters, never mind her husband - repulsive and cartoon like a character that he is. These are all memories too unsavoury to dredge up. But how deep an understanding of the consequences could he have had back then and why should anyone expect more from someone so young? He understands later why she might have gone down the slippery slope, but it’s too much for him to acknowledge, let alone bear.
The Only Story is an attempt to understand the nature and truth of love, but love stubbornly refuses to be put in a pidgeon hole. It’s full of deep and bittersweet expressions that have to be read several times to feel their emotional impact, like, for example, “Nothing ever ends, not if it’s gone that deep. You’ll always be walking wounded .....walking wounded or dead”. It’s sad and moving, but a penetrating and beautiful story for anyone who has loved.
Many thanks to Netgalley, Random House UK, Vintage Publishing, Jonathan Cape and Julian Barnes for the opportunity to read and review this amazing book.

This is one of those stories that is so stylised, and at times, so difficult to read, that you think it’s destined to be a modern classic. Filled with sharply-crafted rebukes to the process of storytelling, yet at the same time charting an almost-classic story of love, rejection and unsuitable matches- indeed, it’s called ‘The Only Story’– Barnes’ take on sixties village life screams Literary.
The story itself starts with the DH Lawrensian ‘Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less?’ That’s the question this book lives and dies by, as it charts the story of Paul, the story’s narrator, as he falls in love with Susan, a forty-nine year old woman at his local village tennis club, and charts the course of their affair as they elope, as Susan succumbs to alcoholism, as they try to navigate the expectations and judgements of society. By the end, do we have an answer to the question? Not really: Paul’s story is more like a confession, or a meditation of the dangers and beauty of love, rather than any kind of moral lesson.
In the end, of course, Paul chooses love rather than to conform, but is he any happier for it? The story follows three parts: the first, in his adolescence, is told in the first person, whilst the second part, where he and Susan face up to the realities of her love, is told in the second person- ‘you don’t know what to do’- giving the book an almost accusatory tone, as he sees the disintegration of their relationship. Ultimately, it destroys him: the final third is told in the third person, as Paul tries to come to terms with the ramifications of his decisions in life, having abandoned Susan to flee and travel the world instead.
This literary device communicates, more effectively than words, Paul’s slow decline from hope and love to disillusionment and tragedy. But while his inner life is brought vividly to us, Susan remains unreachable: we never see inside her head, and we never see who she is beyond brief flashes of personality, that while endearing, make her seem more of a grandma than a lover. Perhaps that’s the point, though: the end sees Paul trying to make sense of their affair as a jaded adult.
So, overall. It’s a quietly breathtaking book, but it’s not one that I would choose to read for fun: more like read and write an essay on, or learn some life truths, from. Barnes is an exceptionally skilled novelist, and this book is a quietly lyrical ode to love; read it.

Classic Julian Barnes. A love story with a twist, told in his beautiful prose. So much food or thought here. I really enjoyed it.

Ineffably sad but searingly honest, as well as often very funny, The Only Story is an excellent novel: a disquisition on a relationship (between a young man and a much older woman) and how our lives are affected and changed permanently by love. It's a treatise on how memory works over time, and how we constantly anatomise and revise our pasts. Being Julian Barnes it's also an examination of the language we use and how phrases and words become part of ourselves. I've always loved his writing and this is a book I'd recommend to anyone who has ever loved, or been loved, whatever the circumstances and outcome.

This is a book about the love affair between 19 year old Paul and 48 year old Susan. At the start of the book Paul is living with his parents during the summer breaks from university. He meets Susan, who’s married with two grown up children, at the village tennis club and they quickly fall into an intense relationship.

The book explores what it means to be in love and how a strongly held belief in youth can morph over time. It examines how memories pile up over time and are repeatedly re-examined and reassessed and how during this process retrospective importance can be placed upon events which initially seem innocuous but over time come to be suffused with meaning.

The narrative shifts between the 2nd and 3rd person and the writing is beautiful. There is so much wisdom here about the meaning of love, the reliability of memory and the loss of innocence. Loved it!

I was sent a copy of The Only Story by Julian Barnes to read and review by NetGalley.
At first I was seduced by the author’s beautiful way of writing and the romanticism around this story of love. However, towards the end of the first chapter (there are only 3 in the book) I began to tire of his navel gazing. Chapter two was, in places, unbearably sad while chapter three read more like an essay, theorising the protagonist’s previous thoughts and feelings – though this time in the third person unlike the rest of the novel which is all written in the first person. Throughout the book there is a fair amount of repetition of sayings, events and moments that are obviously wandering through the character’s mind as he mulls over what love has meant to him, and much of what he explores is food for thought and quite insightful regarding human relationships. On the whole though this feels like one man’s justification for the way he has led his life – whether related in fact to the author himself or whether it is pure fiction – which the protagonist makes no apologies for right at the beginning of the book.
I can’t believe that this can be Julian Barnes’ best writing (the first of his I have read) but it leaves me intrigued enough to seek out and read some of his other work.

"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 really question."
This is a book to be savoured and to have time taken over it. It just seems so personal and private, and frankly, I felt nosey reading it. It illustrates a 19 year old boys great love - a 48 year old woman who he meets at a tennis club during his holidays from University. This love endures through disapproval of both families and many hardships before the end.
It was interesting that the book moved through the use of first person when the love was new and exciting, second person when the relationship began to encounter problems and third person at the end when he is more detached from his lover, Joan. Watching the slide of someone in to addiction and eventually, dementia, was a particularly sad part of the novel, with his personal guilt and inaction increasing the melancholy and sadness of the whole situation. At the end of this book, I finished the last page and found myself sitting and thinking about it for a while. It really is a very affecting book.