Wednesday Post Juan Pino

To be honest, thus far, this book has been a piece of cake in comparison to Dostoyevski. The story has been straight forward and enjoyable, though not too much has taken place. What I have gathered from what I have read so far is a good sense of who the characters are as well as their characteristics. I believe that Julian Barnes did a great job with characterization. In particular, I have taken a liking to Adrian. He strikes me as the mysterious intellectual badass. In fact when he goes off on his very logical, well thought out and developed ideas I think to myself, "damn, this dude's pretty cool," despite the fact that he is a bit awkward socially. Furthermore, on the social aspects of Adrian, it seems that he wouldn't fit in at all with the other three friends. The narrator states how it seemed unlikely for another person to join their group of friends, as well as how they were a bit opposed to the idea of another person joining. Despite signs that would point in the opposite direction, the narrator goes on to describe how Adrian became part of his group of friends. Quite frankly I believe that this could potentially lead to a conflict in the book further down the plot line. Another source of potential conflict that I see is the fact that Adrian in a way replaced Alex with his philosophical views. Lastly, I can't decide whether I like or dislike the beginning of the book. Clearly it is meant to foreshadow but I don't know if it would have been better for Barnes to just go ahead and develop his story, perhaps even shock the reader down the line, as opposed to forewarning the reader. The encrypted message makes copious references to liquid substances, their flowing patterns, as well as a mentioning of wrists. I believe that the book may lead to one of the characters committing suicide. My theory is also furthered by the fact that a character has already committed suicide and the main characters debate on the topic of suicide. Time is another theme/subject that I realized was mentioned more than once in the beginning of the book. I still do not know what to make of it, but I do believe it could potentially play a large role in the novel.