Name: Levels of Life
Rating: 4.04 (25 reviews)
ISBN: 9780385350778

Julian Barnes

A follow-up to The Sense of an Ending traces the Man Booker Prize-winning writer's life from the 19th-century events that shaped his world to his transformative experiences with ballooning, photography, love and loss.

Levels of Life

Kenna Marcelo

when a couple who had been jointly photographed returned to examine their proofs, the wife always looked first at the portrait of her husband - and so did the husband.

Aamna

It is, how one review aptly describes, an examination of grief. I could sympathise but that's all I felt.

Andrew John Kinney

One thing that connected with me as soon as Barnes began describing his grief at his wife's death was his hate of the silly euphemisms people use in referring to death: "Your loss", "she lost her battle with cancer", and worst of all, "pass", not "died". After my father's death, I was helping my mother navigate the considerable post-mortem bureaucracy, and one of my assignments was to talk to the insurance company. The smarmy, southern-sounding man on the phone asked me when my father "passed", and I bristled inside, but said calmly, "He died on the 31st". Julian Barnes is nothing if not honest about his grief, and he prefers others to be also, which I get, entirely. 

Julian Barnes' wife Pat was, by all accounts, an extraordinary woman and a force in the literary community as an agent. One author, whose agent Pat was, said, "Pat was scary, but in a good way." 
Barnes never quite says it, but it's obvious that he felt like pinching himself to see if it was real; one senses he is constantly in wonder at his luck: how did he persuade such a woman to marry him? And yet, as he says, "Every love story is a grief story." She enhanced and filled out his life in so many ways, that her death was, to him, more than the loss of his partner; it was a loss of part of himself. "What is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there," he writes. "This may not be mathematically possible; but it is emotionally possible."

The first part of the book is light-hearted, and perhaps a parable. He describes the experiences and the relationships of several 19th Century figures who were involved in ballooning, and Sarah Bernhardt is a central figure, as is Nadar, who pioneered the practice of aerial photography, and also photographed Bernhardt. The resemblance between Fred Burnaby and Barnes is clear, and perhaps there is some reflection of Pat Kavanaugh in Sarah Bernhardt. Only the author knows. As he says, "You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world changes." Certainly he believes, with ample reason, that this is true of him with Pat.

The third section of the book is the strongest. Barnes' unflinching gaze at death, and what it means to the living, makes it the best memoir of grief I have read. He says that the constant awareness of impending death gives, or should give life meaning, and we shouldn't gloss over it. Or, to paraphrase Trotsky, "You may not be interested in death, but death is interested in you." The ancients understood this better than we do, because death was an everyday presence. Barnes, despite having been previously bored by opera as an art form, finds himself unexpectedly drawn to certain operas after his wife's death because of the directness of the stories - the Greek myths did not waste time getting to the point, as in Orpheus and Eurydice. 

I could go on, but a better suggestion is to read the book. It is a slim volume full of understanding of the hard truths of life and death, and it is a beautiful story despite the sorrow.

Ioana Kardos

It goes to your heart, depicting the intricacies of the most important aspects of human life. Barnes definitely knows how to delve into it.

You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changedâe¦ In Levels of Life Julian Barnes gives us Nadar, the pioneer balloonist and aerial photographer; he gives us Colonel Fred Burnaby, reluctant adorer of the extravagant Sarah Bernhardt; then, finally, he gives us the story of his own grief, unflinchingly observed. This is a book of intense honesty and insight; it is at once a celebration of love and a profound examination of sorrow.

Sabine Delorme

Vor einigen Jahren hatte ich mich an „Flauberts Parrot“ und „The story of the World in 10 ½ chapters“ versucht, aber es war wohl der falsche Zeitpunkt, ich wurde einfach nicht warm mit den Büchern und habe Mr Barnes daher eine ganze Weile lang eher links liegen lassen. Bis wir im Bookclub vor einer Weile „The Sense of an Ending“ lasen, für mich eines der besten Bücher 2011. „Levels of Life“ ist ein ähnlich schmaler Band und so dünn das Buch auch ist, so schwer habe ich mich doch mit der Rezension getan.

Den Rest der Rezension findet ihr hier: http://bingereader.org/2015/03/31/lev...

Gokhan Danabas

Arman Keyvanskhou

'You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed...' Julian Barnes's new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and about tearing them apart. One of the judges who awarded him the 2011 Man Booker Prize described him as 'an unparalleled magus of the heart'. This book confirms that opinion.

Levels of Life

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