Product Description

A brilliant, discursive, very funny book about death and the fear of death, god, nature, nurture and the author's childhood. The closest thing to a memoir Barnes will ever write.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5595 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
Life's a bichon, and then you die.Elegant and eloquent, Barnes (Arthur & George, 2006, etc.) arrives a touch belatedly on a well-worked scene: namely, English writers pondering and arguing the existence or nonexistence of God. Barnes inclines toward the golden mean: "I don't believe in God," he writes, "but I miss Him." He was once more inclined to the atheism of Hitchens, Dawkins et al., but now, 62 years on, he admits to less certainty and "more awareness of ignorance," to say nothing of a growing understanding that the good times on this side of the grass are finite. On that point, one of this slim memoir's finest moments is a vignette of just a couple of paragraphs about disposing of his recently deceased parents' stuff, sending some of it off to the consignment shop, some to the recycling center and shamefacedly tossing the rest and feeling a little queasy in the bargain, "as if I had buried my parents in a paper bag rather than a proper coffin." All this musing on death and the divine makes Pascal's wager an ever more attractive proposition, even if Barnes readily recognizes that one of the most powerful impulses for religion is the knowledge - and consequent dread - of death, the great divide in life being between those who fear the end and those who do not. Rambling along amiably, the author stops to look in on some famous last words - Hegel's, for one, who said before expiring, "Only one man ever understood me, and he didn't understand me." Barnes also composes a lovely, oh-so-English self-effacing obituary for himself, confessing to a love of love, friendship, books and the wine bottle. He ends with a meditation on how that obituary might be occasioned, though the reader will hope that he proves right in reckoning himself only three-fourths of the way down the walk toward the light.Gentle and lucid - a welcome change from the polemical tone of so many books on the matter (or antimatter, if you like) of the big guy upstairs. (Kirkus Reviews)

The Financial Times
'It is entertaining, intriguing, absorbing ... elegance that makes a sombre subject irresistible reading.'

Scotland on Saturday
'...witty, poignant and allusive, deals with the problems of memory and bristles with asides on poetry, penguins and religion...'

Customer Reviews

a mixed meandering
No,not an autobiography but the thoughts on parents,grandparents and photograph of never to be known person in ravaged photograph were fascinating. His brother features greatly in his meanderings althought I sensed a degree of frustration that brother's thoughts did not tally with his at most times.
Thoughts of pre death anticipation and death itself,along with a possible afterlife and existence,or non existence of God were approached from many angles,leaving the reader to make up his/her mind on the subject. Also one or two unique views on the perception of a God..thought provoking.
Not an easy book to read,and you could easily give up in trying to follow his thoughts......"what the hell is he trying to say now?" You may even find your mind is only picking out the fairly straitforward sections and skimming the convolutions,of which there are many.
At the end of the book I found myself thinking that I had been used as Julian's psychiatrist and sat through many hours of expensive consultations.

Style Battles Content
In NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF, Julian Barnes uses the history of his immediate family and the comments of many writers--who he considers his "true bloodline"--to examine death, as well as its connection to God. Rest assured that this book, like A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 10½ CHAPTERS, is a primarily an essayist's intellectual journey. The book is never morbid or creepy.

For me, NtbFo was best when Barnes was writing about his biological family. When writing about the death of his parents, for example, he conveyed the weakness and humiliation and rage of the dying, as well as the complex feelings of anger, pity, and responsibility in survivors. Likewise, the book was strong when Barnes wrote about his grandfather. Then, he pondered how little a person leaves after death, with mystery and a few random artifacts all that's left after, say, 50 years pass. These family-based musings are thoughtful and tender. And Barnes's brother, a philosopher who does not allow slack thinking, adds rigor to Julian's thoughts.

On the other hand, the results are mixed when Barnes uses the comments of numerous writers to explore his subjects. Here, the ideas and anecdotes he presents are always interesting, ranging from consoling to depressed, from accepting death to dread. And, his work with this material is a pleasure to read when an essay--few are longer than five pages--starts with the adroit presentation of a concept, moves to a supporting or contrasting idea, and then finishes with revelation or connection.

But occasionally, his short essays develop in an inscrutable and arbitrary fashion, with this reviewer finishing an essay in confusion, not insight. (How the heck did I get here?, was my not infrequent reaction.) Even after rereading, these particular essays struck me as brilliant babbling, not the achievement of sparkling or new connections. This has unfortunate consequences for NtbFo, since Barnes frequently circles back to ideas he has already explored, returning to them to layer or enrich meaning. But, this strategy doesn't work when an idea's original presentation, or new context, lacks clarity.

Nonetheless, Barnes has a very interesting mind. He writes fine prose and this book renewed my interest in his work. Next: ARTHUR & GEORGE.

Barnes sheds light on Death
"I may be dead by the time you are reading this sentence."

Julian Barnes gets all his thoughts on death down on paper before his doctor gets to him in the future to deliver the, Mr Barnes - I'm afraid it's not good news.

So the book is like a will drawn up in preparation for his inevitable death, by whatever form it takes. Although by all accounts Barnes is in good health and has many more years before him, he's written this book now as insurance against a rushed job as his draws his final breath.

So instead of a thinned narrative of a dying man, we get the literary genius of Barnes saying in full health ...

"Let's get this death thing straight."

And for us this is good news.
The book is thought provoking and demonstrates the ability of Barnes to intelligently consider a taboo subject. And far from being macabre, you feel like you are being invited to chat with Julian over an after dinner cigar. It's all very english:

"My fear of death is low-level, reasonable, practical."

Some would run around screaming, "We are all going to die!" in the face of death. Julian in effect says, calm down stop running around like a headless chicken, or worse still sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich and let's talk about it calmly over port and cheese.
He brings death out into the light, where it is less frightening.
Leaving it in the dark, is never a good idea - it's far scary. Julian flicks the light on for us and attempts to dispel the lurking beast from under the bed.

Julian also brings a good dose of humour in to wash down the bitter pill.

"Sometimes (I) find life an overrated way of passing the time."

Into the mix then are thrown God, Barnes' brother, French writer Jules Renard and some Barnes family memoir ( although he says "this is not my autobiography." )
So, for example, we get Barnes giving account as to how he let go of a possibility of religion as an adolescent,

"hunched over some book or magazine in the family bathroom, I used to tell myself that God couldn't possibly exist because the notion that He might be watching me while I masturbated was absurd."

and

"I don't believe in God, but I miss him."

Hmm - so God was there in the bathroom, until Julian couldn't bear the thought and banished him?!

Barnes' stance now? An agnostic -

"How can we be sure that we know enough to know?"

One of Barnes' recent books was called The lemon Table - a collection of short stories - The lemon being the Chinese symbol for death.
What Barnes does in Nothing to be Frightened of, is invite us in around his own lemon table and opens the discussion.

It feels like he really hopes he won't have the last word.