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Review: Julian Barnes explores fear of death in memoir 'Nothing to Be Frightened Of'

By Vikram Johri, Special to the Times
In print: Sunday, September 7, 2008

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Julian Barnes is best known as a writer of fiction. He has written 10 novels, the most recent of which is Arthur & George. Based on the Great Wyrley Outrages — a series of mutilations of farm animals that took place in the county of Staffordshire at the beginning of the 20th century — that book was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize, but lost out to John Banville's The Sea.

Barnes' latest book, Nothing to Be Frightened Of, is part family memoir, part conversation with himself on death and dying. Barnes is a great conversationalist, and this is a humorous book in spite of its serious subject matter.

Barnes introduces us to his quiet, God-fearing father and his rather domineering mother, whose Communist beliefs took her away not only from God but also from her husband. The portrait of family life that Barnes draws is not a charming one, affected as it was by the wide gap between his parents' outlooks and the uncomfortable truce between Barnes and his elder brother, the British philosopher Jonathan Barnes. Jonathan and Julian think variously on almost every major point, and Julian concedes that Jonathan's being older and remote negatively affects the dynamics of their relationship.

Be that as it may, Nothing is really a book about Barnes' fear of dying and how the questioning novelist in him tackles this fear against an overpowering wish to be comforted by the knowledge of God. One man Barnes quotes repeatedly is French author Jules Renard, who wrote movingly about witnessing the death of his father and brother. Barnes is a satirist, so his treatment often verges on the deprecatory, yet in putting forth the wide range of his scholarship, he points to the seriousness of his intention.

Perhaps Nothing is merely a prelude to a more complete book on Barnes' life — a trailer to a comprehensive autobiography. Given his exquisite literary talents, such a book will be eagerly awaited.

Vikram Johri is a writer in New Delhi, India.