The Sense of an Ending - a Post Script

I chuckled at the Londoner's Diary in Friday's Standard for, where the book group leads, so the literati follow. It is as if they had read our thoughts on the Julian Barnes novel..... or maybe they had read the blog (at The Sense of an Ending).  The Standard asked whether it was "an Emperor's new clothes moment" since, apparently, a review in the New York Times is no better than lukewarm: "It isn't terrible, it is just so...average. It is averagely compelling.....it involves and average amount of concentration and ..... it is averagely well written: excellent in its averageness!" The Standard goes on to suggest that it is what a lot of people have been thinking but haven't dare say or print. Well, ever bold...... you read it here first.