Book 76 - Julian Barnes "Elizabeth Finch"
Julian Barnes "Elizabeth Finch" (Vintage)
Elizabeth Finch is a charismatic professor, at least for some. At some point in his mid-thirties, Neil finds himself in her course on Culture and Civilization. He is smitten by her authority and pedagogical stance. Is he in love with her? Certainly in some respects. And though he fails to complete his large assignment in the course, he establishes a relationship with EF that sees them sporadically taking lunch together in London over the next twenty years. But the friendship never progresses beyond the mid-day meal. So when Neil finds himself bequeathed Elizabeth Finch’s library and papers on her death, he is bemused. As is the reader. But the project he embarks upon in response - attempting to canvas the impact and influence of Julian the Apostate on Western thought - is equally baffling. In some sense, he believes that this is a project that EF would have wanted him to complete. But he has as much difficulty coming to know and understand the historic Julian as he does the enigmatic Elizabeth Finch or, perhaps inevitably, himself.
Novels that present subjective and fragmented accounts of one character by another are often a means to reveal the narrator’s character by reflection. Here, not so much. We know little enough about Elizabethan Finch and even less about Neil. The extensive regurgitation of research into Julian the Apostate is both unedifying and uninteresting. It fails to move along the plot, such as it is, or expand upon aspects of Neil’s character. I can’t help wondering what Julian Barnes was thinking as he wrote page after page on this subject. I can only guess that it held some fascination for him that he felt was so obvious he needn’t pass it on to his reader. Alas.
Barnes is a fine writer, and perhaps this will need more readings for it to embed in my thoughts, so I hesitantly recommend this.
Elizabeth Finch is a charismatic professor, at least for some. At some point in his mid-thirties, Neil finds himself in her course on Culture and Civilization. He is smitten by her authority and pedagogical stance. Is he in love with her? Certainly in some respects. And though he fails to complete his large assignment in the course, he establishes a relationship with EF that sees them sporadically taking lunch together in London over the next twenty years. But the friendship never progresses beyond the mid-day meal. So when Neil finds himself bequeathed Elizabeth Finch’s library and papers on her death, he is bemused. As is the reader. But the project he embarks upon in response - attempting to canvas the impact and influence of Julian the Apostate on Western thought - is equally baffling. In some sense, he believes that this is a project that EF would have wanted him to complete. But he has as much difficulty coming to know and understand the historic Julian as he does the enigmatic Elizabeth Finch or, perhaps inevitably, himself.
Novels that present subjective and fragmented accounts of one character by another are often a means to reveal the narrator’s character by reflection. Here, not so much. We know little enough about Elizabethan Finch and even less about Neil. The extensive regurgitation of research into Julian the Apostate is both unedifying and uninteresting. It fails to move along the plot, such as it is, or expand upon aspects of Neil’s character. I can’t help wondering what Julian Barnes was thinking as he wrote page after page on this subject. I can only guess that it held some fascination for him that he felt was so obvious he needn’t pass it on to his reader. Alas.
Barnes is a fine writer, and perhaps this will need more readings for it to embed in my thoughts, so I hesitantly recommend this.