Talking It Over (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Julian Barnes
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The late 1980’s
- Setting: London and France
- Principal Characters: Gillian Wyatt, Stuart Hughes, Oliver Russell, Mme Wyatt
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Sex or sexuality, Psychology or psychologists, Prostitution or prostitutes, Emotions, Truth, Divorce, Corruption, Fate or fatalism, Weddings
- Locales: France, London, England
Julian Barnes’s sixth novel explores the permutations in the relationships of its three main characters, Londoners in their thirties: Gillian Wyatt is married first to Stuart Hughes, then after a very short time to Oliver Russell; Stuart and Oliver begin as best friends and end as worst enemies. The jacket copy is worth quoting as much for what it reveals about contemporary literary fashion as about the novel’s point of view: “What we hear are three…voices telling three wildly different versions of one story—presenting the protean facts of disintegrating and escalating...
[The entire page is 2222 words long]
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