A Sense of an Ending Thursday Post

I’ve enjoyed reading The Sense of an Ending so far. Having just read Part 1, the first part ends on a depressing yet thought provoking note. Throughout the first part of the novel, we get to know Webster from his early days in school to his retirement. I found the last part of chapter one to be very profound as it essentially reduces life to an individual’s collection of memories with the romanticism of youth long gone.  I could relate too many of Webster’s early observations in school. Comments on what he calls the cleansing skepticism he adopted in school to protest against many of the beliefs they tried to shove down his throat stood out in particular. The author so far has been very witty in recounting his memories to the reader. Adrian’s suicide was completely unexpected to me as I thought Adrian would play a larger role as the novel unraveled. I guess from Adrian’s suicide the author conveys that even as a remarkable student, Adrian’s death was processed and forgotten in the blink of an eye, despite how romanticized Adrian chose to portray taking his own life.  I hope that the second part of the book offers some answers on Adrian’s relationship with Veronica as I found it fairly clear that his suicide had at least something to do with his infatuation with Webster’s former lover.