Love, Etc

249 pages. DJ slightly tannedTwice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Julian Barnes continues to reinvigora te the novel with his pyrotechnic verbal skill and playful manipulation of plot and character. In Love, etc. he uses all the surprising, sophisticated ingredien ts of a delightful farce to create a tragicomedy of human frailties and needs.After spending a decade in America as a successful businessman, Stuart retu rns to London and decides to look up his ex-wife Gillian. Their relationship had ended years before when Stuart?s witty, feckless, former best friend Oliver s tole her away. But now Stuart finds that the intervening years have left Oliver? ??s artistic ambitions in ruins and his relationship with Gillian on less than s olid footing. When Stuart begins to suspect that he may be able to undo the resu lts of their betrayal, he resolves to act. Written as an intimate series of cros scutting monologues that allow each character to whisper their secrets and inter pretations directly to the reader, Love, etc. is an unsettling examination of co nfessional culture and a profound refection on the power of perspective.…