Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011. Graham Hendrick, an historian, has left his wife Barbara for the vivacious Ann, and is more than pleased with his new life. Until, that is, the day he discovers Ann's celluloid past as a mediocre film actress. Soon Graham is pouncing on old clues, examining her books for inscriptions from past lovers, frequenting cinemas and poring over the bad movies she appeared in. It's not that he blames Anne for having a past before they met, but history has always mattered to him...
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Before She Met Me
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Frighteningly plausible... stunningly well done Guardian Funny, sad and faintly ominous...making jealousy tangible and dangerous Spectator An intelligent and addictive entertainment... Mr Barnes has succeeded in writing one of those books that keep us up until 2am reading just one chapter more... few will be able to resist its easy humour and almost insidious readability New York Times Book Review Compelling Daily Express Concise and witty about psychology, ideas and love, in all its many forms The Times
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From the Inside Flap
At the start of this fiendishly comic and suspenseful novel, a mild-mannered English academic chuckles as he watches his wife commit adultery. The action takes place before she met him. But lines between film and reality, past and present become terrifyingly blurred in this sad and funny tour de force from the author of Flaubert's Parrot.
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More About the Author
Julian Barnes is the author of nine novels, including Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters, England, England and Arthur and George, and two collections of short stories, Cross Channel and The Lemon Table.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great British Humor,
This review is from: Before She Met Me (Paperback)
Before She Met Me is a book filled with the great British humor of Julian Barnes. It has its flaws, to be sure, but they are minor ones. One of the characters is truly reprehensible, but his appearances are so few and far between that I think his horrid behavior can easily be overlooked.What bothered me more, with this book, were the female characters. One of them seems quite true to life but the other one did not. She seemed wooden, a cardboard cutout. Barnes is a terrific writer, but in my opinion, he has yet to create a believable, good, female character. The writing in this book is really first rate British humor (I expect it may be too British for some). It is an escapist book but I don't think that should lessen its importance. After all, don't we all need to escape now and then? If you want to laugh and have a little fun, if you want to forget your troubles for awhile, then try Before She Met Me. It might do you a world of good. It did me.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Funny but not believable,
By
This review is from: Before She Met Me (Paperback)
Julian Barnes' second novel, from 1982, is _Before She Met Me_. It's about a 40ish academic, who falls in love with a slightly younger woman, and leaves his shrewish wife to marry the younger woman, an ex-actress. For most of the book it's very much in Kingsley Amis territory, right down to the fart jokes (pretty good ones, for fart jokes) and the scathing depiction of the awful first wife. Then it moves into Martin Amis territory. The conceit is that the hero sees one of his new wife's movies, and becomes jealous of the actor with whom she is portrayed (in the movie) as having an affair. All this is from long before they met (hence the title). This whole thing really unhinges the guy, and things go from bad to worse, as he starts to obsess about every affair his wife might have ever had, and he watches her old movies (she was always a minor actress, too) over and over again. It's very funny and readable, but wholly unbelievable. The guy's reactions are just not plausible, and Barnes doesn't make them plausible. All this creates a certain distance, which works against us caring about the ending. I'd still say go ahead and read it because page by page it's good fun, but it doesn't work.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting ideas, but not so interesting of a book,
By A Reader (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Before She Met Me (Paperback)
The topic of exploring the sexual jealousy of a man regarding his wife's past lovers is, in my opinion, a largely unexplored aspect of life in litereature. For those who found it unrealistic, let your imagination run wild the next time your lover discusses his or her past relationships.
Unfortunately, the way it was encountered here was so over the top that it became so absurd that it seemed to parody itself. Some people may have found this funny, but I would argue that it undermined the value of undertaking reading the book; it would be hard to say that this is 'humor writing' or to even call this a funny book. That said, I agree with many people here in regards to the characters. All of them, seemed to be not only unlikeable but also unconvincing. They have no comlexity to them what-so-ever. They are all one sided caricatures: the shrewish wife, the crude writer, the subservient and loyal wife, and the obsessed man. All their characterization could be summed up with one adjective, and that's obviously not good. And the end, well, we've all seen it. It was an easy way out. The jealousy remained. Alternatives were never truly explored (unless you include 'wanking'). And so the most hackneyed ending in the history of literature was tagged on at the end of the book. The ____ of the main character. If you are to read Barnes, please read Flaubert's Parrot or The History of the World... They are both wonderful and it would sad if reading this would stop anyone from reading them.
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