Love Barnes anyway so was really looking forward to this and it did not let me down. An absolute gem, beautiful prose and a captivating story.

I enjoyed the way that Barnes reflected on the creative process, the ownership of art and its meaning under a totalitarian regime. There were also a bunch of superb one-liners that stopped me in my tracks but the structure of the book made for tiring reading and as a result I wasn’t curious beyond what I read. This is the kind of book that I will look back on more fondly or with more interest than I experienced as I read, purely for Barnes’s perspective on art and ownership.

2.5/5

Goodness but this was hard work. Julian Barnes is such an erudite chap and his books are in danger of getting too clever by half. This was an amazing construct, very interesting in its way and so, so clever, but quite hard work to get through, with not many laughs or much enjoyment in the process. Don't forget entertainment, Julian! it's what a reader needs to keep him going.

Unfortunately I didn't finish reading this one, but I did skim read as it was one of our books of the month.
Thankyou for approving my request to read it as, even though I did not finish the book, I have definitely been able to take something from it for referral purposes to customers.