Arthur & George | Julian Barnes | Getting inside a character's head

Arthur & George | Julian Barnes | Excellent

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Arthur & George

	Arthur & George Julian Barnes Vintage, 2007 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 88 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Getting inside a character's head

Julian Barnes inhabits the lives of these two men and with a dry wit gives us a look at Edwardian England from two quite different viewpoints, while providing some insight into things about prejudice and intolerance that never change. Based on a true incident, as films sometimes say, this story of Arthur Conan Doyle resolving some ambivalence in his own life by crusading for an Anglo-Indian solicitor who had been falsely accused and convicted of some ugly and pointless crimes carries the reader along effortlessly. In a prose that is lucid and compelling, Barnes makes the the story of the obscure Edalji as gripping as that of the famous Conan Doyle. He maintains these two points of view with an iron discipline, never lapsing into omniscient narrator, which adds to the mystery. We never do find out who committed the atrocities against animals that Edalji was accused of, and that's not really the point. It is a novel about prejudice and entitlement and change in society -- not at all irrelevant to a time in the United States when a black man and a woman are both running for president.

I'd previously read Flaubert's Parrot by Barnes, another equally readable book in which he uses an historical literary figures to explore the interior of a character.

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Excellent

This is a wonderful book. Smart, well-written and somehow gripping in its pace and style.

Finally, A Man Booker Prize Finalist living up to its billing...

The novel wades back and forth between alternating lives of Arthur and George. Arthur, a Scot, was a promising student and athlete with consider wit, charm and appeal. George, on the other hand, was born poor, the father of a Parsee Indian, has terrible eyesight, is unpopular, and has far less promise. Arthur's influence and power expands as he matures and he moves within the upper class. George, on the other hand, passes from one day to the next seemingly unnoticed - sleeping and praying in his father's bedroom and devoting his life to studying railway law - leading a life of a quiet common man. And then, the lives of the two men cross when George is accused of crimes that he could hardly comprehend, no less commit - but, because he is a "different sort" George goes to prison because of racism and corruption in the police force. Julian Barnes brings the characters alive in this fictional re-creation of a real life detective story - he keeps you engaged and absorbed in this page turner.

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An artfully crafted, fascinating, tale

I should begin by saying that while I am a great admirer of Barnes' literary skills, I have not always counted his essays, novels and stories among my favorites; there always seems to be a sneering undertone, a condescension towards the characters, those he disagrees with, Americans, and even the reader. Thus it was I resisted reading this book for a long time, even after a friend proclaimed it the best book she'd read in a decade.

I don't know that I'd go that far, or even as far as calling it the best book I'd read in a year, but Arthur and George is certainly among the top ten. The story is well known, at least among Conan-Doyle fans; famous titled writer takes an interest in what he sees as a miscarriage of justice. But Barnes approaches the story in an unusual- for him- way. He starts with a pair of parallel tales that don't intersect until well into the novel. (Fans of Richard Powers' novels will see strong parallels here.) And unusually (I think) for Barnes, his treatment of the main characters is uncommonly kind and sympathetic- especially so for Conan Doyle, who had many unlikable traits and opinions.

I won't go into the plot, as much of the pleasure in this book depends on the unexpected turn and surprise. Suffice it to say that this is a very involving, meticulously crafted, tale that will drag the reader along to the end, and will not disappoint.

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Interesting concept, boring execution

Julian Barnes keeps things interesting from the childhoods of the two men leading up to their adult lives. During that time I could barely put the book down. But then the writing starts to drag. Arthur's details become insignificant. George's story continues to intrigue, but by then everything is a bit predictable. Barnes rushes through the what should have been the best part of the book - when Arthur finally clears George's name. After getting past that, I could barely bring myself to finish the book. In fact, I don't think I did.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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