What: So, I think I've decided that I like Julian Barnes better as a short story writer than as a novelist. That happens sometimes (I'm side-eyeing you, A.S. Byatt).
The fourteen stories collected in Pulse sweep from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first and make stops in Italy and Brazil along the way. My favorite bits, though, are the four instances of "At Phil & Joanna's," which are largely comprised of scraps of dinner party conversation. As in ...
Representative dialogue:
"Don't get her started on that. You rode that hobbyhorse to death last time, darling."
"Did I?"
"Riding a hobbyhorse to death is flogging a dead metaphor."
"What is the difference between a metaphor and a simile, by the way?"
"Marmalade."
"Which of you two is driving?"
Connection to previous Wreckage: Pulse was part of List #35: A Few of the Best Books I Read in 2013.
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