A very likeable book by a likeable writer. Unsurprisingly, I like it! It tells of Stephen and Jean, a couple that Julian Barnes introduced as a student. They eventually broke up, but decades later he met them both independently again, and introduced them again, and they became a couple again. This is their story. But the main character is Barnes himself.
He presents the story as if he is just telling it to me in conversation. He’ll tell it to you if you read it!) And what a witty and erudite conversation it is. He covers many topics both trivial and weighty, such as ageing and mortality (human and canine), relationships, and memory. Come to think of it, he talks about canine relationships and memory too. And on that last note: Proust. I’ll bet Barnes has a lot to say about Proust – he does say a bit of it in this book.
On the topic of aging and mortality, he announces in this book that it will be his last. This leads to the end of the book where he does a kind of a short summing up of his life and career, and bids a fond and touching farewell to me, and possibly you. And all of his readers. The tone is wistful and affecting. He seems like a thoroughly good chap. I would like to be him when I grow up, but alas, I think it’s too late.
Though the jacket claims Departure(s) is a work of fiction, it is presented as autobiographical. Certainly there’s enough true things about Barnes that it could well be. Although he does say he swore to Jean and Stephen that he would never write about them. Still, that’s novelists for you.