Since 1980, Julian Barnes has made a name for himself as one of the strongest and most interesting of the novelists of his generation, a group that also includes Martin Amis and Ian McEwan. His work is distinguished by its intelligence and wit; its ready willingness to deal with important themes; and its versatility. Even aside from his detective novels, Barnes's novels demonstrate a continual freshness that is unusual. In scope, or ostensible scope, they range from the story of a man seeking the original parrot used by Flaubert while he wrote one of his stories, to a professed history of the world (these two books, Flaubert's Parrot and A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, are probably his best known), though since h…
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