Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes. I got this from the library because I heard a radio interview with Barnes, who theretofore had not been on my radar; it is an elegantly written exceedingly intelligent book. The first third is a study of the titular character, a professor with a distinctive intelligence and character who has a great impact on the narrator's life; the middle is a historiography of the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, a figure who looms large in the Finch's intellectual work; the last third is the narrator coming to grips with her life, his relationship to her, and his own life. Like the narrator himself, I am not 100% certain of the conclusions I have drawn with regard to any of this, but the journey of understanding was mesmerizing.
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