эссе east wind

Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946.
He was educated at the

City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he
graduated in modern languages (with honours) in 1968. Julian Barnes is the author of twelve
novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. He
has also written three books of short stories, Cross Channel, The Lemon Table and Pulse; four
collections of essays; and two books of non-fiction, Nothing to be Frightened Of and the Sunday
Times bestseller Levels of Life. Julian Barnes belongs to the generation of British postmodernist
writers.
The postmodern trend in literature was born in the second half of the XX century. Translated
from Latin and French, "postmodern" means "modern", "new". This literary trend is considered
to be a reaction to the violation of human rights, the horrors of war and post-war events. It was
born out of the rejection of the ideas of the Enlightenment, realism and modernism. But if in
modernism the main goal of the author is to find meaning in a changing world, postmodern
writers talk about the meaninglessness of what is happening. They deny the laws and put above
all the case. Irony, black humor, fragmentary narration, genre mixing - these are the main
features of postmodern literature.
East Wind (from Pulse) is a story of an affair between an Estate Agent and a waitress from
Eastern Europe that ends rather abruptly. East Wind takes place in a dreary seaside resort made
up of shale beach, strips of concrete, “a bored sky” and an expanse of space left open when a
group of ruffians burned down the beach huts. At a beach-front seafood restaurant named “The
Right Plaice,” the recently divorced Vernon strikes up a conversation and then an affair with
Andrea, a compliant waitress whose accent places her origins as somewhere in Eastern
Europe. Andrea seems to traumatized by something (or someone); she can only ask Vernon if
her behavior is good or bad. When, after making love, Vernon comments, “Gosh, you’re strong,”
Andrea asks, “Is strong bad?” As Vernon begins to feel he is falling in love, he becomes
obsessed about finding out who Andrea is, so much so that he steals and duplicates her apartment
key. While she is at work, he pokes into her private life and he finds evidence of a heartbreaking
past.
It is difficult to say even who speaks in the story. Who is the narrator. On the one hand, we see
that it is written in the third person and the narrator himself does not appear in the plot, and on
the other, we look at the story from Vernon's side and can easily trace his emotions. So, at the
very beginning, we can feel his state - extreme boredom. (From a window table, he now looked
out across a strip of concrete to damp shingle, a bored sky, and a lifeless sea. That was the east
coast: for months on end you got bits of bad weather and lots of no weather. This was fine by
him: he’d moved here to have no weather in his life.)
As for me, the whole story gives me a feeling of suspension and, perhaps, stagnation. The only
one who brings any faster rhythm to the sleepy lives of the sleepy people of a sleepy city is
Andrea. This impression is made by her short chopped phrases, which are in great contrast to the
dull monologues (including internal ones) of Vernon.
It is also difficult to come to a single conclusion about the meaning of the story itself. Many
people express different points of view – that this is a love story, that the main idea is to
condemn the USSR and other Eastern European countries, that the essence is to condemn the use
of doping, and many others. Personally, I don't see anything here except two people who are
traumatized by their past and their absolutely strange relationships. Is this story about love?
Unlikely.
The only thing that really catches me (not a fan of postmodernism at all) is the language. A very
rich narration, a large number of metaphors and epithets, frequent use of parcelling - all this
indicates that the author is really good with his pen and has rightfully received all his awards.
However, for me, all these positive aspects cannot yet cover the complexity of understanding the
meaning. Perhaps in the future I will re-read the East Wind or even the entire Pulse and finally
be able to feel it with all my heart.

эссе east wind

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Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946.

He was educated at the

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