After reading two rather long books, I came upon Julian Barnes’ new book “Levels of Life.” What a breathe of fresh air. The book is a collection of three essays loosely tied together. Two of the essays begin with the same sentence. In the “Sin of Height,” Barnes writes, “You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed.” In this case, the two things are flying in balloons and taking pictures from balloons. These relatively new inventions in the 1880’s created new ways of seeing the world.
Essay two entitled “On the Level” begins in roughly the same way except sometimes putting the two things together works and sometimes it doesn’t. The time is the 1870s; the place is Paris. The idea of flying in balloons is continued but only as it touches the lives of two real people: Sarah Bernhardt and Fred Burnaby. Barnes writes about an imaginary love affair between them. Two people come together and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
The third essay “The Loss of Depth” begins roughly the same. “You put together two people who have not been put together before… and what is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there.” Barnes is writing about his wife of thirty years who died in 2008 only 37 days after being diagnosed. He writes so poignantly about his loss that, at first, it is almost like the reader in intruding upon his grief. But you have to continue. His pain is as palpable and the love he has for his wife.
You can easily read this slim volume in two hours but it is one book that give you two hours of rewarding and great writing.