This was a difficult book to get my teeth into at first. I kept putting it down, then all of a sudden the plot opened up and swallowed me in. I think the fact the narrative is set in two time frames, Bruno, the main character's present, and his time at boarding school. As a narrator he seems to be brutally frank about himself, but as the narration is first person, there is always a shadow of a doubt as to whether the narrator is reliable or not, I think in this case Bruno is, due to his very frank statements about himself.
The title of the book "Serious Things" seems an odd choice at first, until you realise that Bruno has "Serious Things" on his mind, whilst his old school friend seems to have left one institution for another, [boarding school- university- marriage,] letting other people think for him, despite his apparent confidence with life. Anthony is only as self-important as his "audience" allows him to be, and he chooses carefully.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on finishing it about the two main characters.
www.gregorynorminton.co.uk
Labels: general/literary fiction