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The Only Story

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The Only Story

By: Julian Barnes
Narrated by: Guy Mott
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About this listen

'Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.'

First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at 19. At 19, he's proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention. As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen.

©2018 Julian Barnes (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Tear-jerking Inspiring

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All stars
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Melancholic. Beautiful. A bit like the music of Eric Satie. You have to be in the mood for it.

A great book.

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It was wrongly recommended to me as "one of the most beautiful love stories of the XXI century". It is rather common love story even though it is well written and well performed. It contains some interesting statements and observations about love but most of the time it was just boring.

not my favourite love story

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A beautifully performed tragic tale of how formative and all encompassing love can be. A must read

Stunning

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I was attracted to this book by the reviews in press - many saying this was best book of 2018

I can not fault the writing or the phrases - but dear me it is miserable - a man self pity for a love once had - I kept hoping for something of a story - a twist or a bit more - but no - it just kept going on and on about the relationship

It may be a critics favourite but not for me

Beautifully written but miserable

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Don't read if you need cheering up. I like French films in which not much happens but in which people are carefully examined and a sense of place and time is created. This story is a bit like that so I liked it. But I was a bit frustrated by the end because there's not much explanation for why one of the 2 main characters disintergrates as rapidly as they do.

Not a comedy

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At first, the beauty of the writing combined with the near hypnotic gentleness of the performance by Guy Mott was sufficient to carry this reader forward before the boredom set in. Then came the realisation that the characters were all both tedious and insufferable: the innocent and immature nineteen year old youth believing himself in love with his tennis partner, a married woman with 'respectable' daughters older than himself and a boorish husband who drank, played golf and hit her. So gay and exciting to him before they moved in together, she was treated by him with a cold jealous fragility: no wonder she also began to succumb increasingly to the escape of alcohol. For all his talk of love, there was little, if any, emotion here.

Tedious, infuriating and boring despite the fine writing and impeccable narration. And set in the 1960s? Two decades earlier, perhaps

"It wasn't only men who snore."

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It's got the character of å first, promising novel or an old man's pondering, returning to juvenile philosophy.

so so for Barnes

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a book which encourages self reflection of one's own story, melancholic with some sad humour.

food for thought

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Very well narrated and written. A simple yet engrossing story. Throughly enjoyed this very good book

Very enjoyable

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i need to start reading the descriptions more before i get books, i had no idea what this was going to be about: the relationship between a 19y old man and a 48y old woman, and its evolution over a longer period of time.
it had some interesting remarks here and there, and some wit, but i felt it was mainly uninsightful.
an inexperienced man, wishful thinker almost until the end, who can’t read women, falls for the idea of sex with an older one, and is deluded into believing she is special, somehow, when she is just the average person absorbed in her own self importance. although the alcoholism is a sad, quite realistic part of the story, a lot of the rest was not a good enough problem to be faced with, to excuse such drama.

not excellent

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