end

            To be completely honest, I didn’t like The Sense of an Ending at all. Unlike the other books we’ve read so far, I found this book to be depthless. I felt like the whole time I was waiting to be surprised by some kind of an amazing twist or inspirational idea, but ended up being disappointed.

            I think Tony acted impulsively at times, like in the letter to Adrian and Veronica, but really who doesn’t act irrationally in the heat of the moment? We all slip sometimes but did Veronica really need to punish him like that and practically torture him with the statement “You’ll never understand”. I said from the beginning that she was a bitter, grudge holding, and overall unpleasant person, and I think her behavior proves it. She’s holding Tony responsible for something he really no part of, which was the affair between Adrian and Sarah.

            If the book shows one thing it is the importance of not adding or tainting memories but allowing them to remain truthful and honest. Once you begin changing your own history into something more pleasurable, you become a bit delusional; it will cause problems not only for yourself, but also the person you shared the memories with. Tony and Veronica broke up for a reason; they were simply incompatible for each other. Yet, even looking back on their not-so pleasant memories, Tony finds a way of twisting them into something that is so augmented it practically becomes a different story. And, if twisting the stories wasn’t enough, Tony uses a “cafeteria plan”, and chooses what to remember and what not to. He meticulously picks the good memories, like sitting on the damp blanket with the group of people and Veronica forty years ago, or dancing with Veronica for the first time. His mind is playing tricks on him and for that I guess he does capture my sympathy.

            Overall, I still don’t think Tony is a bad guy, he simply got caught in the heat of the moment and unfortunately it haunted him until “the end”. But besides this seemingly harmless character, I still have to say that the book didn’t really show me anything different about life. Maybe my expectations are particularly high because of the effect Notes from the Underground had on me, but as I close this book I really don’t feel like I left with much.