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  • Metroland

  • By: Julian Barnes
  • Narrated by: Greg Wise
  • Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (46 ratings)
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Metroland cover art

Metroland

By: Julian Barnes
Narrated by: Greg Wise
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Summary

Man Booker Prize-winning author Julian Barnes' debut novel.

The adolescent Christopher and his soul mate Toni had sneered at the stifling ennui of Metroland, their cosy patch of suburbia on the Metropolitan line. They had longed for Life to begin - meaning Sex and Freedom - to travel and choose their own clothes.

Then Chris, at thirty, starts to settle comfortably into bourgeois contentment himself. Luckily, Toni is still around to challenge such backsliding.

©1980 Julian Barnes (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Barnes writes like a dream." ( Village Voice Literary Supplement)

What listeners say about Metroland

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Quite boring and unnecessary

Not very good. Usual thing about middle-class boys thinking they’re jolly clever because they know French, Latin and can quote twentieth century French intellectuals. These type of books tend to perpetuate the notion; if you don’t know old European art and literature then you’re not very bright. Most, if not all the characters are pretty unlikable and I just wasn’t invested in them. Alan Hollinghurst does this stuff much better.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Superb; proto-SOAN

This was an amazing book (never mind "first book"). It felt quite similar to The Sense of an Ending, though it didn't quite have the weight of that in the end. The audio performance was understated, excellent.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The intensity of youthful ignorance

A well performed journey through the minds of adolescent self obsession into middle age. How much you enjoy it may depend on your ability to recognise your own self l and laugh?

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