The Only Story Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Julian Barnes (Author), Guy Mott (Narrator), W. F. Howes Ltd (Publisher)

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'Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.'

First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at 19. At 19, he's proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention. As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen.

Listening Length

7 hours and 21 minutes
Author

Julian Barnes
Narrator

Guy Mott
Audible release date

1 February 2018
Language

English
Publisher

W. F. Howes Ltd
ASIN

B079731GRL
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	7 hours and 21 minutes
Author	Julian Barnes
Narrator	Guy Mott
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	01 February 2018
Publisher	W. F. Howes Ltd
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B079731GRL
Best Sellers Rank	42,054 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1,596 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 6,979 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

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2 star		8%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Jude

Sesquipedalian melancholy

Reviewed in Australia on 1 February 2019

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The author uses writing which made reading a simple story an arduous journey. It’s not the easiest content to stomach, although I found myself drawn to finding out how their story ends. Sad, drawn out and bordering on demoralising.

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Philippa Beckerling

Unsatisfying

Reviewed in Australia on 12 February 2018

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The reviews drew me in and I gave Barnes another go but I should have listened to my instincts. There is too much unexamined behavior in this protagonist to make this novel interesting, he’s too self centered, unperceptive, uninterested in the lives of other people. I didn’t like him for a minute and I didn’t care about him. I haven’t gained anything from reading this lifeless account of an ill-judged love affair and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

One person found this helpful

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Gary Cassidy

Slightly tortured characters

Reviewed in Australia on 11 March 2018

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Characters are horrible. Use of drawn out introspection by the main character became tedious. In the end the only story lost the plot and became a turgid lake. His wonderful writing was not enough to overcome this books banality. I am feeling horrible writing this.

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Shastel

A little different

Reviewed in Australia on 5 April 2018

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I found this a difficult almost boring book at the beginning & almost gave up on it. But decided to continue, I was rewarded by a story that had many poignant moments & happy ones too. This book makes you reflect on life, love, happiness, loss, strength of character, cowardice. Certainly a interesting book.

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Hellofareader, Perth

Tedious

Reviewed in Australia on 1 March 2018

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Introspective, navel gazing, cynical repetition that flattened me every time I read a few pages. Didn't like the narrator at all. Not to put too finer point on it, this is just an awfully depressing book that held little interest for me.

One person found this helpful

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ChloeMichael

Oh oh oh

Reviewed in Australia on 14 February 2018

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Just magic
Just beautiful
Just stunning and divine and painful to read and devastating to finish. Read it at once.

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Top reviews from other countries

Hande Z

One is enough

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2018

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This is the story of Paul, a 19-year-old man-boy who fell in love with Susan, a 42-year-old married woman with two daughters about Paul’s age. The story is told, in the first person, but midway through, it shifts into the second, and then the third person. Does that signify the narrator’s attempt to distance himself from his own story?

It is s powerful story about how the ecstasy and tragedy of love dissolve in each other. Paul begins his story by telling us how he met Susan and they fell in love. He tells about the ways in which they conceal that love, first from each other, then from their friends and families.

Julian Barnes uses his impressive mastery of the language to bring us to feel, without abhorrence or condemnation; in fact, we might find ourselves cheering on this pair of love-birds. Then, just as we are getting comfortable with them and their love, Barnes starts to pull at our heart-strings, and before we know it, he tears them asunder.

Is it better, he asks, to love the more and suffer the more, or to love less and suffer the less? He leaves us an important hint as to how to approach this question – and that, is the role that chance plays. No matter who we are or how much we plan to take control of our affairs; no matter how much we rationalise our actions, we lose to the fickleness and callousness of chance – or do we? Follow this story through the years. If you are a young reader, read it again when you are in your 70’s. You will be sure to see it differently, as you would your own life, in retrospect.

The audio cd format was very well narrated by Guy Mott. Motts brings the sensual dimension of the audible thought to accentuate the wide range of emotions that Barnes intended to convey in the book.

23 people found this helpful

M. Dowden

Love and Life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2019

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Julian Barnes gives us here quite a contemplative and also rather exquisite novel. As I started to first read this I couldn’t but help notice certain similarities to Ford Maddox Ford’s novel ‘The Good Soldier’. There the narrator was unreliable, and we have the same sort of scenario here, with Paul, our narrator thinking back over the years, and reminding us that memory can play tricks with us over time, and we see this here, as well as bits being added to our understanding as the tale progresses.

After a short philosophical discourse on the matter of love, so this opens as Paul returns from university for the break, and at only nineteen has time on his hands. As he joins the local tennis club in his hometown in Surrey, so we see him start to get rather friendly with married Susan, who is not only wed, but is a mother to two daughters, and is over twice his age. This is where we have really the first weak part in the story (the other being how Susan can have the money for buying another place) in that Paul falls in love, rather than just having an affair before going back to his studies.

As the reader we can see the cracks appearing in the relationship long before either Paul or Susan do, thus giving us the opportunity to think about why these are appearing, and what can be done to make things easier. This story thus brings us into the actual tale, making us more than conventional voyeurs, instead making us interact somewhat with what is happening. As we see a descent into alcoholism on one side and the inevitable decline and other events that this leads to so we can see that Paul is in many ways blinkered to reality. After all we all carry a certain amount of psychological baggage around with us, and Susan being that much older than Paul, and also married with children when this opens, has a lot more.

Quite philosophical at times, and giving us a good psychological study, so this also reminds us of the realities of real life, compared to people’s more imaginary ideas and beliefs. This is the next read for my local book group, and I must admit that I am looking forward to it, as there is a lot to discuss with this novel.

8 people found this helpful

Caryl

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 August 2018

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I found this book fairly boring and dated . Barnes’s use of phrases like “played out generation” and “fancy boys” stuck the book and it’s protagonists and their experiences too firmly in mid twentieth century England and so alienated me somewhat. This was exacerbated by no real explanation of what draws a nineteen year old sexually to a forty eight year old and I found the relationship difficult to believer in. The later chapters descend into platitudes and my patience with both of the main characters evaporated. However the writing saves it - otherwise I don’t think I could have finished the book.

15 people found this helpful

Pros and Cons

Nicely written, meditative type of novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 February 2019

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Barnes writes really nicely, of course; style is never noticeable. Except I wondered about his shifts in narrative point of view. He moves from first, to second, to third person. It works, I think. The second person parts suggest that the narrator, who is getting old in the narrative present of the novel, is looking back on his younger self as a differential person, almost - it distances him from his earlier self.

I enjoyed this - it’s a novella about a nineteen year old boy whose first love is an old married woman, and how this, his ‘one story,’ shapes and defines his entire life.

It’s not for everyone- it’s wouldn’t be a page turner for most people. It’s very grey and very English, but that’s exactly what I was looking for. It’s a sort of meditation on love as a disaster.

9 people found this helpful

So what?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2018

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Julian Barnes is a great writer, but this is not a great novel. Young man starts relationship with older woman is a somewhat trite plotline. Even the mechanism for the telling of the story is rather banal. It could have been rescued by inciteful character development, but the protagonists remain essentially two-dimensional. Other characters suffer the same lack of development; indeed, most are mere caricatures rather than fully-fledged actors in the narrative. The story comes across as one that Julian Barnes wanted to write, but you are left with a feeling of emptiness (and also relief) as the final paragraph ends. Maybe that is how JB meant it to be, but the lack of depth is very disappointing.

12 people found this helpful

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The Only Story Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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