The Sense of an Ending won the Mann Booker Prize for 2011. I’m old enough to where I don’t read books just because they are good for me, a book has to be a “good read” for me to be interested in it. The book is about memory and how memory can fool us as the years go by. That has always intrigued me because sometimes when I get together with family and talk about far ago events we each sometimes have completely different versions what exactly happened. Also, if you have ever been involved in a lawsuit you often have a two step process. First you recount to your attorney’s just what you think happened. This is often completely refuted when you go back through the documentation. Memories are a powerful thing, they are hard to change.

Anyway, I didn’t know the book was about memory until after I had read it and peeked at real book reviews by people who can read critically and know how to write reviews. Unfortunately you get me. While I was reading the book it was about an older baby boomer, Tony Webster, in his 60’s who is pestering an old girlfriend from his teenage years. She had dumped him way back when to date one of his best friends, Adrian. Adrian died in an accident while still a teenager. Over the years Tony got on with his life and forgot about both Adrian and his girlfriend until one day he got a letter and found out that the girlfriend’s mother had bequeathed Adrian’s personal diary to Tony. Problem is, the old flame still has it and isn’t giving it up. So Tony decides he wants the diary and proceeds to make a fool out of himself.

So to me the book is about how guys just a little older than me are still capable of making asses out of themselves and it is also a book about how guys “just don’t get it.” I didn’t get the basic riddle of the book until literally the last page. I bet most women could solve the riddle by about 20 pages into the book.

Don’t get me wrong, the book is a good read. Barnes has a way of writing that draws you into the story. That is what I’m looking for in a book. A book that makes time stand still as you are completely engrossed.

I give the book three stars out of five.