Nothing to Be Frightened Of (Vintage)

Nothing to Be Frightened Of (Vintage)
by Julian Barnes

Nothing to Be Frightened Of (Vintage)
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $6.98
You Save: $8.02 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.07 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Julian Barnes
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-06
ISBN: 0307389987
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Vintage

Book Reviews of Nothing to Be Frightened Of (Vintage)

Book Review: Not That Interesting
Summary: 3 Stars

Except for some short stories I was impressed with I haven't read much Barnes, but I plan to read some of his novels.
I gave this "memoir" three stars because Barnes wrote it, not because I liked it, neither did I find it much worth the trouble. He does say some startling things but the work itself is like diving for pearls in a murky sea.
If you knew anything about the writers Barnes refers to throughout that would be better. I don't know enough about them, haven't read them and wasn't generally interested in his expertise in shaping them to his theme, which he doesn't always do. So there's a lot of stuff in here that I could do without.
His wit often falls flat, more like cynicism, and I wish he had found some reason to love his parents more, even if he didn't like them. Another failing, maybe in the author, is that I don't feel any passion. Either for life or for death. I don't know if this is the bland, maybe bitter fruit of his education or just his personality. And like my review, there's a lot of discontinuity and jumping around in the book to make it more like a buffet with a good number of things to eat that you don't like than eating off the menu and having a satisfying full course dinner.
I thought about reading it again, surely its better than this, but I'm not so sure I will because he didn't hold enough cards the first time around to convince me that its worth another try.

Summary of Nothing to Be Frightened Of (Vintage)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A memoir on mortality as only Julian Barnes can write it, one that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction. If the fear of death is ?the most rational thing in the world,? how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty and an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for, against, and with God, and at his own bloodline, which has become, following his parents? death, another realm of mystery.

Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis.

Authors Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Authors Books
Bloomsbury Recalled ImageBloomsbury Recalled
by Quentin Bell
Columbia University Press; Published: 1997-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.37
Price in other shops: $29.00
William Tyndale: A Biography ImageWilliam Tyndale: A Biography
by David Daniell
Yale University Press; Published: 1994-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $62.92
Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish America ImageNeither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish America
by Kathleen Ann Myers
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops: $45.00
Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics) ImageStorm of Steel (Penguin Classics)
by Ernst Jünger
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops: $16.00
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life ImageSurprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
by C.S. Lewis
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 1995-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.86
Price in other shops: $18.00
Roughing It (The Penguin American Library) ImageRoughing It (The Penguin American Library)
by Mark Twain
Penguin Classics; Published: 1981-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops: $16.00
Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98 ImageLife Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98
by George Dawson, Richard Glaubman
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.70
Price in other shops: $15.00
Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives) ImageShakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)
by Bill Bryson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $13.99
The Professor and the Madman CD ImageThe Professor and the Madman CD
by Simon Winchester
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-10-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $8.48
Price in other shops: $14.95
Alexander Hamilton: A Life ImageAlexander Hamilton: A Life
by Willard Sterne Randall
Harper; Published: 2003-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.91
Price in other shops: $32.50
Similar Books and other products
England, England ImageEngland, England
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 2000-04-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.10
Price in other shops: $15.00
Talking It Over ImageTalking It Over
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 1992-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $16.00
Before She Met Me ImageBefore She Met Me
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 1992-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.61
Price in other shops: $15.00
Love, etc. ImageLove, etc.
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 2002-06-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.96
Price in other shops: $15.00
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters ImageA History of the World in 10 1/ 2 Chapters
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 1990-11-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.27
Price in other shops: $15.95
Pulse: Stories ImagePulse: Stories
by Julian Barnes
Knopf; Published: 2011-05-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops: $25.00
Flaubert's Parrot ImageFlaubert's Parrot
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 1990-11-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.72
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Lemon Table ImageThe Lemon Table
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 2005-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.41
Price in other shops: $15.00
Arthur & George ImageArthur & George
by Julian Barnes
Vintage; Published: 2007-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Sense of an Ending (Borzoi Books) ImageThe Sense of an Ending (Borzoi Books)
by Julian Barnes
Knopf; Published: 2011-10-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops: $23.95