I did not enjoy this book. I do enjoy ancient histories but this was very poorly executed. The book could use a brutal edit. There was promise in the slow reveal of Elizabeth Finch, but it was never fully realized because the large sections of ancient Christianity critiques were dull enough to subvert any interest in the relationship of the history to the character.

Title character Elizabeth Finch is an atypical professor with a unique teaching style and eye opening material to teach. She is memorable to her students for a reason and has interesting view on our culture. This book brings to light many interesting things from the past that have had impacts on modern society. I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative parts of this book and getting to know the characters , in particular Elizabeth Finch but even as a history major myself I found the historical text part of the story a bit too much and hard to get through, luckily the book isn’t very long. I appreciate the author recognized that a good modern novel doesn’t need to be 400 pages or more, and didn’t feel the need to make the story drag on and I liked there was no part I felt was just filler to add length. I liked the book and think it can teach us important things and has very good insight into modern society and how we can let go of things we think to be true in order to make society better for everyone.

This novella was not a book written for a specific type of audience, and I definitely don't fall into that category.

This follows Neil, who as a student had a professor Elizabeth Finch who was unlike any he has had before or since, and his point of view on her, her life and how she influences his life throughout the years and after her passing.

This book was just too big brain for me, and very scholarly. It has interesting points and I learn things but it was not remotely something I enjoy in fiction

Julian Barnes presents the compelling story of Neil, who fondly reflects upon his time as a student and the engaging professor who taught his Culture and Civilization course,, an enigmatic and peculiar woman by the name of Elizabeth Finch.

The problem is that, in presenting Elizabeth Finch’s (or EF’s) story, the author spends the middle portion of the novel exploring the life of Roman emperor Julian the Apostate, in the form of an essay written by Neil, as he is inspired by his former professor’s papers, left to him in her will. It is an unexpected and arduous read.

The novella takes a turn into a more scholarly tone, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Thank you to Knopf Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

Nobody writes like Barnes. You always expect one thing, and get something very different. Elizabeth Finch is no different. It's a book of ideas and the ways that these ideas become imprinted on us. How we accept or reject truths. I feel I'll be returning to this novel again and again, as I have many of Barnes' past works.

Delighted to include this title in the August instalment of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see review at link)

Julian Barnes is a Postmodern novelist still very obsessed with unreliable narrators and blurring the lines between fiction and reality. In "Elizabeth Finch", Julian Barnes uses Neil, the narrator who has been in love with lecturer Elizabeth Finch after taking an adult class on culture and civilization and whose personal life (a failed two time husband and a failed actor) is intentionally fragmented and incomplete, to explore history and biography and their fictionality.

This book is divided into three parts. The first part is about Elizabeth Finch, who refuses to stuff adult students with "facts as a goose is stuffed with corn" and who shall not dispense "milksop encouragement and bland approval." To the narrator Neil, she is cool and stoic and he observes "She smoked as if she were indifferent to smoking." She is against self-pity and against monotheism. She introduces Neil Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor before monotheism took over Europe in the name of Christianity.

Intellectually influenced by Elizabeth Finch, Neil writes an essay on Julian the Apostate, which is the second part of this novel. The essay is about Julian's life and how later historians or artists viewed Julian. The views determines the history of Europe itself and Neil questions the history; "why should we expect our collective memory - which we call history - to be any less fallible than our personal memory?" Apparently, getting the history wrong is part of everything.

The third part of "Elizabeth Finch" is devoted to constructing or deconstructing Elizabeth Finch's life and the narrator himself. The history expands to the life/ biography of Elizabeth Finch and even to the memory and perception of Neil. Then you might wonder maybe getting everything wrong is part of being a person. Oh, wait! Didn't Julian Barnes write a few books on this already?

Though the second part is a bit dry for my taste, the novel is quite enjoyable and thought provoking.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this advance copy of the book.

This book was a struggle for me. I loved the Elizabeth Finch character and her comments and takes on things. I did not love Elizabeth's favorite topic of Julian (Emperor/apostate) and how Neil constantly refers to this historical aspect, even including a paper he wrote on the topic as a whole chapter (!). I would have liked more of Elizabeth and less of Julian. I have never thought about what goes into writing a biography after someone has died. Neil's struggle with seeing who Elizabeth was, through the lens of his rose colored glasses, was interesting.

'I was cleverer in her presence. I knew more, I was more cogent; and I was desperate to please her. '

'Annually, on my birthday, I clear out my cupboards and shelves. It feels like an act of personal hygiene. And I sometimes wonder why those close to me imagine that I need so many scented candles, so much skin cream, so many jams made from improbable ingredients, so many tins of truffled this and truffled that, whose truffle content, when you look at the label, turns out to be approximately 0.05 percent.'

'She just took the longer, and higher view.'

'The King of Unfinished Projects was leaving this one unstarted.'

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the beginning and end of this book much better than the middle. The "bookends" of the book read like literary fiction. As Neil writes about his teacher, Elizabeth Finch, I started to develop a picture of an enigmatic, private person. Neil seems to want to crack the code of this woman, to perhaps understand her better.

Neil is equally as private. As the book progressed, I thought we would learn more about Neil as we learned about Elizabeth.

But then the middle of the book turned into a completely non-fiction essay about Julian the Apostate. I couldn't decide how that section made me feel. I spent quite a bit of time making notes in my reading journal that amount to Christian apologetics. Not sure if that was the point or not. Neil (and the author) don't reall give us a definitive answer to that question, either.

But in the way of true literary fiction, this book makes you think. Decide things for yourself. Agree or disagree. And I rather liked it.

The moment I opened this novel and began reading I was hooked. I wanted to know as much as possible about Elizabeth Finch. I was intrigued by her stillnessand her approach to teaching (I never had a professor or lecturer like her in any of my university courses and I wish I had). I quickly read through part one which I found to be witty and engaging. Then part two became a different kettle of fish all together. It bogged down and became more of a thesis than continuing the story of Elizabeth Finch. I know the purpose was more to interpose her take on Julian the Apostate and Christianity but I felt it removed the flow of the book and was far removed from the story of Elizabeth Finch. However the final chapter kind of brings everything together and we learn more about EF and how she was perceived by various students and her brother. An interesting read and an intriguing woman was Elizabeth Finch.
Thank you to NetGlley and Penquin Random House Canada for an advance copy of this novel. This review is my own opinion.
This review will also be posted on GoodReads.

I absolutely disappeared for book 1 of this. About an, albeit fairly annoying mid-life crisis sort of guy, who takes a class and meets the titular character, and subsequently pens his thoughts and feelings about her for the entirety of their relationship.

The second part was why I stopped reading. It’s interminable. It is literally a paper on a peculiarity Finch brought up in class, and so digresses into the most boring story I have ever encountered. Even if I were interested in the history being discussed, the voice crafted for the essay is so uninteresting—especially when contrasted to the first part.

What an absolute shame. But I literally fell asleep. It’s over.

Dnf 51%

Julian Barnes has written twenty four previous books and I have read most of them, so as soon as I could open it I started reading it - and read it straight through in a couple of hours. It is written as a memoir by a man at the end of his life recalling being enraptured by a woman at an adult education course, whose method of teaching both challenges and fascinates him. He goes to all her lectures, fails to deliver the one required essay at the end, but then he is the king of unfinished projects - but they continue to meet, for lunch on a regular basis. Later he tries to memorialize her, and thus himself, but to do that he has to deal with the history she was teaching. I must admit that I had never heard of Julian the Apostate - but I suppose for Julian Barnes he must have had good reason to learn all about him. So in reading this book there is quite a lot of both real and imagined history. It turns out that there really was a Venetian painter called Carpaccio - so that wasn't what I initially thought. It makes me wonder if there really was an Elizabeth Finch. No, but there are already many reviews on line.

I have to admit that I do have quite a few books that I have started but failed to get involved enough to care about. It is not often when I start and finish a book at one sitting. It is 192 pages. It is also quite difficult to not reveal too much by writing about it. What I do think is that this will be another winner for Barnes. And since it is now probably too late for you to get in on the "first 200" list you will have to wait for August. But it will be worth it.