"Pulse" Summary

Introduction

Imagine you’re sitting in a bustling English pub, the air thick with laughter and the gentle clink of pint glasses. Someone at the next table launches into a story—wry, poignant, and just a touch mysterious. That’s the experience Julian Barnes crafts in Pulse, a collection of short stories first published in 2011. Barnes, a literary heavyweight best known for Flaubert’s Parrot and the Booker Prize-winning The Sense of an Ending, brings his signature wit and philosophical insight to this rich, subtle volume.

Pulse is not your typical collection. The stories hum with energy—sometimes quietly, sometimes with an electric jolt—exploring love, loss, desire, friendship, and the quirks of modern existence. The title itself is a clue: Barnes is listening for the hidden beats beneath ordinary life, the emotional rhythms that shape our days. Whether you’re a college student discovering Barnes for the first time or a lecturer seeking fresh material for class discussion, Pulse offers a masterclass in short fiction, brimming with humor, empathy, and intellectual rigor.

Historical Context

Set primarily in contemporary England, Pulse is firmly rooted in the early 21st century. The stories unfold against a backdrop of modern anxieties—technological advances, shifting social mores, and global interconnectedness. Many of the tales are steeped in the everyday realities of middle-class British life, from suburban dinner parties to weekend getaways.

Barnes draws inspiration from both literary tradition and personal experience. His influences are wide-ranging—echoes of Chekhov’s psychological subtlety, Flaubert’s observational precision, and the dry, existential humor of British satire. The collection also reflects Barnes’s ongoing engagement with themes of mortality, communication, and the passage of time—subjects that have shaped his career since the 1980s.

Brief Synopsis

Plot Overview

Pulse is a mosaic of fourteen short stories, loosely grouped in two sections: the first half presents self-contained narratives, while the second half is anchored by recurring “At Phil & Joanna’s” vignettes. Each story is a window into the private worlds of Barnes’s characters as they navigate the complexities of love, loss, and identity.

The stories range from the comic to the melancholic: a divorced man’s awkward foray into online dating, a couple’s fraught holiday in Italy, a British ex-pat’s encounter with a mysterious neighbor. The “At Phil & Joanna’s” series offers a witty, ongoing commentary on contemporary social and political issues, all filtered through the banter of a group of friends at regular dinner parties.

Setting

Barnes’s England is familiar yet subtly strange—a world of leafy suburbs, art galleries, seaside towns, and cosmopolitan London streets. The settings are rendered with economical precision, evoking mood and atmosphere with just a few well-chosen details. There are forays abroad as well, notably in stories set in Italy and Scotland, but the emotional landscape remains distinctly British: restrained, ironic, and occasionally touched by a sense of melancholy.

Main Characters

While Pulse is a short story collection with a rotating cast, several key figures recur across the tales. The table below highlights some of the collection’s most memorable characters:

Plot Summary

Opening Stories: Love and Loss in Modern England

Barnes opens Pulse with a series of stories that plumb the depths of human connection. Characters grapple with romantic disappointment, friendship, and the subtle pain of everyday misunderstandings. In “Complicity,” a man reflects on the end of a relationship, trying to decipher where blame truly lies. The writing is spare, the emotion raw.

In “East Wind,” one of the collection’s longest and most acclaimed stories, Garret, a middle-aged divorcee, begins a tentative relationship with Jenny, a reserved physiotherapist. Their hesitant romance unfolds in small gestures and awkward silences, culminating in a revelation that both connects and distances them. Here, Barnes masterfully evokes the vulnerability of middle-aged love, laced with humor and aching honesty.

The “At Phil & Joanna’s” Vignettes: Social Satire and Group Dynamics

Sprinkled throughout the collection are the “At Phil & Joanna’s” stories. These dinner table vignettes are sparkling with wit and philosophical debate. The regular cast—Phil, Joanna, and their eclectic friends—discuss everything from immigration and climate change to marriage, art, and the meaning of happiness.

The dinner parties are more than comic interludes; they serve as a barometer for the cultural pulse of modern Britain. Barnes skewers pretension, exposes hidden biases, and finds pathos in the everyday exchanges of friends who know each other a little too well. The rhythm of conversation—by turns earnest, sarcastic, and confessional—mirrors the rhythms of the heart suggested by the book’s title.

Other Standout Stories: Longing, Memory, and Belonging

Other stories cast a wider net thematically and geographically. “The Limner” transports readers to 19th-century Scotland, where an itinerant portrait painter encounters a family with a secret. The story is a meditation on art, disability, and the limits of empathy.

In “Carcassonne,” a man reflects on childhood holidays in France, using the memory as a springboard to explore the passage of time and the nature of nostalgia. Barnes’s prose here is at its most lyrical, suffused with longing and regret.

Several stories wrestle with mortality and grief. “Pulse,” the titular story, follows a woman as she copes with her father’s terminal illness, struggling to decode the rhythms of his faltering heart—and her own emotional state.

Final Stories: Reconciliation and Acceptance

The last stories in Pulse are quieter, more meditative. Characters come to terms with loss, change, and the inexorable march of time. In “The Revival,” an elderly man reconnects with an old friend, discovering that the past is both irretrievable and ever-present. The collection ends not with answers, but with a sense of acceptance—a recognition that life’s pulse continues, even amid uncertainty.

Themes and Motifs

Pulse is rich in recurring themes and motifs, each intricately woven into the fabric of the stories.

Barnes uses these themes to probe the fundamental questions of human existence: How do we make sense of our lives? How do we connect with others? What remains when everything else is stripped away?

Literary Techniques and Style

Julian Barnes is a virtuoso of the short story form, and Pulse showcases his technical brilliance.

Narrative Structure

• Linked Stories: The recurring “At Phil & Joanna’s” stories provide structural cohesion, echoing the ebb and flow of conversation and connection.
• Unreliable Narrators: Several stories are told from the perspective of narrators who are not always honest with themselves or the reader, inviting us to question the nature of truth.

Symbolism and Motifs

• Heartbeat/Pulse: The motif of the pulse recurs throughout, symbolizing both physical life and emotional undercurrents.
• Art and Music: References to painting, music, and literature serve as metaphors for communication and understanding.

Style

• Economical Prose: Barnes’s writing is precise, understated, and deceptively simple.
• Wit and Irony: Even the darkest stories are laced with humor, often in the form of dry, British irony.
• Emotional Subtlety: Much is left unsaid; the emotional force of the stories often lies in what is omitted.

Author’s Background

Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England, in 1946. Educated at Oxford, he began his career as a lexicographer and literary critic before turning to fiction. Over a career spanning more than four decades, Barnes has established himself as one of Britain’s most versatile and celebrated writers.

Influences and Style

Barnes draws inspiration from both French and Russian literature, particularly Flaubert and Chekhov. His work is known for its intellectual rigor, emotional depth, and stylistic innovation. He frequently explores themes of memory, history, and the elusiveness of truth.

Notable Works

• Flaubert’s Parrot (1984): A metafictional exploration of literary obsession.
• A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (1989): A playful, fragmented take on human history.
• Arthur & George (2005): A historical novel based on the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
• The Sense of an Ending (2011): Winner of the Man Booker Prize, a meditation on memory and regret.

Barnes’s legacy is one of restless formal experimentation and philosophical inquiry. In Pulse, he distills these qualities into the concentrated form of the short story.

Key Takeaways

• Human Connection is Complex: Barnes captures the awkwardness, joy, and pain of trying to connect with others.
• Life’s Rhythms are Unpredictable: The stories mirror the unpredictable, sometimes erratic “pulse” of real life.
• Subtlety is Powerful: Much of the collection’s emotional impact comes from what is left unsaid.
• Modern Life is Both Absurd and Touching: Barnes’s satire is sharp, but his empathy is real.
• Art Reflects and Shapes Experience: The stories explore the role of art, music, and storytelling in making sense of the world.

Reader’s Takeaway

Pulse is a book that will make you laugh, wince, and—if you’re lucky—see your own life in a new light. For college students, it offers a fresh, accessible introduction to contemporary British literature. For lecturers, it’s a treasure trove of discussion topics: narrative structure, unreliable narration, the interplay of humor and pathos, and the social commentary embedded in everyday conversation.

Emotionally, these stories linger. You might find yourself thinking about Garret’s awkward moments, or the dinner table debates at Phil and Joanna’s, long after you’ve closed the book. Intellectually, Barnes challenges readers to pay attention to the rhythms of their own lives—the subtle pulses that drive human behavior.

Conclusion

Julian Barnes’s Pulse is a masterful collection of short stories that captures the intricate beats of the human heart. With wit, empathy, and dazzling technical skill, Barnes explores the joys and sorrows of love, the mysteries of communication, and the quiet heroism of ordinary life.

Whether you’re reading for pleasure, study, or inspiration, Pulse rewards close attention and open-hearted engagement. Dive in, listen for the hidden rhythms, and let yourself be moved by one of contemporary literature’s finest voices.