Document Type
Article
Abstract
[First paragraph]
Despite the remarkable diversity of their material and style, the novels of Julian Barnes are widely considered to be postmodernist works, which employ meta-narrative and intertextuality in order to problematize the notion of truth. Tellingly, Barnes notes in an interview that "I haven't read any literary theory" (Freiburg 52). For Barnes, "to fit novels into some constructed grid," such as "Derridaish prose," "makes the whole thing much less clear than it was in the first place" (Ibid.). Calling postmodernist techniques of intertextuality and palimpsest "grotesque" (60), Barnes discounts postmodernist play with the text and the past. While Barnes believes that his novels speak plainly enough without any theoretical tool, the reviewers of his latest novel Arthur and George beg to differ. The novel revolves around Arthur Conan Doyle, the celebrated creator of Sherlock Homes, and his brief and odd friendship with George Edalji, young solicitor of Parsee descent, as imagined by Barnes. As Arthur's investigation on the mysterious mutilations of horses of which George is falsely accused proves much less riveting than Holmes' sleuthing, the novel ends with George's visitation with a séance for Arthur's ghost twenty-three years after their last meeting. In addition to this baffling storyline, other puzzling moments of Arthur and George fluster the reviewers, leading them to conclude with either of the following assessments of the novel: a "failed" detective novel or a "failed" postmodern novel. Most reviewers read Arthur and George in the light of detective fiction and indicate that Arthur's sleuthing fails to live up to the expectations of Holmes readers. Michiko Kakutani regrets that "the reader doesn't experience the thrill of putting together clues…but feels bombarded by a blizzard of boring bits of data." Similarly, Robert Winder remarks that the "climax is almost a disappointment" because Barnes leaves the whodunit question unanswered.
Repository Citation
Kim, Soo. "The Detective and the Witness: An Ethical Friendship in Julian Barnes’ Arthur and George." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 9, no. 3, 2009, pp. 1–20. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol9/iss3/6