Review of ELIZABETH FINCH by Julian Barnes (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

I’ve been a fan of Julian Barnes since I read his A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters so I was anxious to read his latest offering.  I’m accustomed to Barnes’ blurring of lines between fiction and history, but I was disappointed with this book which is less a novel than a philosophical and theological discourse structured around an essay about a Roman emperor. 

The book is divided into three parts.  In the first section, we meet Neil, the narrator, who took an adult education course entitled “Culture and Civilization” taught by Elizabeth Finch (EF).  Neil describes her appearance, traits, mannerisms, beliefs, and method of teaching, and his history with her.  For Neil, she is an inspirational teacher who “’shook my mind around, made me constantly rethink, burst stars inside my head.’”  The second part is an essay Neil writes about the Roman Emperor known as Julian the Apostate whom Elizabeth Finch admired.  Neil outlines the various historical views of the man.  In the last section, Neil tries to piece together a biography of his admired mentor and comes to realize that not everyone was as enamored as he with the woman he thought could do no wrong.

The opening section caught my attention, especially because most of us can relate to having a charismatic educator who provoked and inspired.  Neil describes EF’s intelligence and wit, her reserve, and her calm stoicism.  He appreciates her collaborative teaching style in which “she directed us elegantly away from the obvious.”  Even after the class finishes, Neil maintains contact with her though she always remains somewhat remote.

The middle section is an essay Neil writes.  He inherits Elizabeth’s books and papers and, to honour his mentor, he researches Julian the Apostate.  In writing the essay, he seems to be trying to know EF by understanding why she admired him and lamented his early death.  EF believed that Julian’s death was a disaster for paganism and lead to the catastrophe of monotheism:  “the dominance and corruption of Christianity led to ‘the closing of the European mind’, the leaching of joy out of Europe, and the persecution and expulsion of Jews and Muslims."  Certainly, the reader is left to consider what the world would be like if Christianity had remained a fringe belief system.  Unfortunately, I found this essay dull.

The final part returns to a focus on EF.  Neil considers writing a biography of EF and interviews others who knew her, only to discover that others saw or knew her differently; rather than a clearer impression of her, what emerges is a more complex and confusing image.  Neil is left wondering “how biographers do it:  make a life, a living life, a glowing life, a coherent life out of all that circumstantial, contradictory and missing evidence.”

Of course, this discovery suggests one of the main themes of the novel:  people are not really truly knowable.  Just as there are various historical views of Julian, there are different views of EF.  Just as Neil cannot completely understand Julian because of conflicting opinions, he is left confounded by what he learns about his beloved instructor from others who encountered her.  In the end, he has only a fragmentary, elusive portrait of EF. 

It is important to remember who the narrator is.  Middle-aged, Neil has two failed marriages and an undistinguished career as a job surfer.  One of his children dubs him “King of Unfinished Projects”, an apt title considering that he doesn’t even write the final essay of the class even though it could be on any subject related to the course.  He is blind to the fact that a fellow student is in love with him.  Certainly, he wears blinkers when it comes to EF.  Faced with evidence that is less than complimentary, Neil always defends EF even if his reasoning is obviously faulty.  How reliable is he in his interpretation of EF? 

It is the essay that comprises the middle section that negatively affected my enjoyment of the book.  It is obvious that Neil is not an historian; his essay reads more like an article one could find on Wikipedia.  It is repetitive and tedious.  I wanted more about the eponymous character.  The themes that people cannot be fully understood or that memory has limitations or that “’Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us’” are not developed in an exceptionally original way.   

A novel for me need not be full of drama, but this one, unlike other of Barnes’ novels, did not resonate with me.

See my reviews of other Julian Barnes novels:

The Sense of an Ending:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-advent-calendar-day-two-sense-of.html

The Only Story: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2018/04/review-of-only-story-by-julian-barnes.html

The Noise of Time:   https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2016/04/review-of-noise-of-time-by-julian-barnes.html

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.