Julian Barnes’ critique of ‘Elizabeth Finch’: the permanent draft

EF, we learn, is a teacher, smokes a lot, has a clear and calm voice, and is intellectually granite: free and owning her ideas. “As a general rule, be careful what the majority wants“, he says at the beginning of the book. Of course, Barnes seduces us with his sketch.

We know we’re dealing with a character novel and it seems that the character is well-founded. But it is not. HE (Who is Elizabeth Finch?) is not a question.

One of EF’s biggest heroes—perhaps the biggest—is J.apostate ulianThe last pagan emperor: the one whose defeat proclaimed our hero in the classroom, marking Europe’s unfortunate return to gray, criminal and reactionary Christianity.

What happens is that after a certain point, in Elizabeth Finch, we begin to realize that the Apostate is no less a hero than Finch himself. Is the story of the virtuous emperor a mirror in which we should see his story reflected? We’re starting to believe it is. We begin to believe, we begin to understand: again, the verb is not chosen at random.

swamp ground

The ground is no longer solid, it’s swampy and has a strange effect. permanent start or permanent draft. Recommended, always recommended. Play Barnes with uncertainty. We love EF but never really got to know him, we love Apostate but beyond being the hero’s favourite, we don’t quite place him in the plot of the novel. And so, the work begins to cause inconvenience. What is not well resolved creates discomfort.

Perhaps that was Barnes’ intention, and given his experience it is hard to doubt that. But it doesn’t mean anything that that was his intention. There is something unresolved, or rather something unresolved, in Elizabeth Finch, and it’s a shame because the novel has such great success as the choice of the narrator. Neila student in his class culture and civilization platonically in love with him.

The relationship they have built around a meal date that is repeated at the same time and at the same restaurant for decades, the blossoming of that admirable love, prolonging the teacher/student relationship towards the personal space, all this is admirably constructed with the precision required by such a delicate material.

Neil’s quest after the death of his friend is also fascinating, as it is a discovery in which a man in love hopes to uncover secrets stolen from him in his own time: a heartfelt quest where every discovery comes together. wrapped in cloth and jealously hidden in a drawer.

We are old enough to anxiously wait for closed endings, for everything to fall into place, and for all the topics to come together on a lively final page. This is not about him. However, the sense of incompleteness does not benefit this novel. On the contrary, it looks flawed.