Alex's Final Post

     The Sense of an Ending was entertaining, however, it did not make a huge impression on me. I found the majority of the novel to be recounts of the same events, same people and it was told through a nostalgic, pessimistic perspective that did not make aging seem like something pleasant. Mr. Shapiro will probably argue with this and say that this is the reality of our situation; we will eventually age and life will reach it’s end and some of us chose to reject it. There seems to be a lot of back and forth on the concept of general history and personal memory, where memories obtained by someone throughout life are perceived as unreliable. Tony is constantly fighting his memory and fleeing from it. Something about his past made it more enjoyable than his present. Could it be that he was in love? Tony was unable to move beyond his adolescence, his time with Adrian and Veronica. They seemed to have made an impression on him, one that followed him for the rest of his life to the point where he could not attempt making new memories, or was unsatisfied with the way he led the second part of his life because he chose to settle with the “cookie-cutter”, simpler lifestyle. As readers we do not like to see our protagonist fall into this limbo of regret and remorse for decisions made in the past, this has most likely effected my opinion on the novel itself. 

     This idea of time and a lack there of, hence the title of the book, is constantly referred to by our narrator who seems to be approaching death. Time almost acts like a barrier for Tony. As he ages, his ability to make memories fades. 

     There is an obvious connection between Adrian and the Underground Man from NTFU. This idea of being “too conscious”, knowing too much or being too aware of the world that surround them is what causes them to retreat from society, and in Adrian’s case, causes him to commit suicide. Life somehow “accumulates” for these characters and becomes predictable and boring. I enjoyed The Sense of an Ending more than NTFU. I feel that it was easier to follow and I was more attracted to the overall format of the novel; characters/traditional plot line.