Levels of Life
Barnes, who won the Man Booker Prize for his most recent novel, The Sense of an Ending (2011), is a stealthy essayist. His tone is urbane and wry, his style pared and sure, but his emotions are stormy. As in his previous essay collection, Nothing to Be Frightened Of (2008), death is Barnes’ theme. Though one wouldn’t think so at the outset as he describes three nineteenth-century balloon flights in England and France enjoyed by three intriguing, eventually interconnected “balloonatics.” There’s rascally Colonel Fred Burnaby; Félix Tournachon, better known as Nadar, the pioneering aerial and portrait photographer; and the “Divine” Sarah Bernhardt. Barnes muses on why being airborne is exhilarating, in spite of one’s being at the mercy of “wind and weather.” The profound metaphorical resonance of Barnes’ fascination with ballooning emerges as he addresses the sudden death of his wife of 30 years and his painful plunge into mourning. This bright wand of a book is testimony to Barnes’ commanding artistry, delving intelligence, and high imagination as he writes of being “griefstruck” with stunningly vital and tonic perception. --Donna Seaman