‘But if you love a writer, if you depend upon the drip-feed of his intelligence, if you want to pursue him and find him — despite edicts to the contrary — then it’s impossible to know too much. You seek the vice as well.’ (Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes)
‘Flaubert’s Parrot’ catapulted Julian Barnes to the forefront of British authors, where he has remained ever since. It is a book that is dizzyingly inventive in terms of form, yet, for me, entirely recognisable in terms of character and motivation. Indeed, the narrator could be me – a literary pilgrim with an almost obsessive love for the French author Gustave Flaubert. In pursuit of his literary idol, he journeys to France in an elusive quest to know the man behind the books.
Part biography, part fiction, part comedy, part tragedy, Flaubert’s Parrot is both funny and touching. It has remained long in my memory.
‘Another thing Kingsley Amis said, this time of me: ‘I wish he’d shut up about Flaubert’ – advice it gave me delight to disobey.’ (Julian Barnes).
