Remembering Peru
Knowing as I arrived that this would be the last time I would see her, I had reminded myself that a dying Carmen Callil was still more Carmen Callil than she was dying. —Julian Barnes, Departure(s) It is tempting to interpret this deceptively simple sentence as a description of a good death. If dying does not erode your identity, it is perhaps a good death. Barnes’ last (i.e. his latest, and also literally his last) novel constantly circles the themes of identity, memory and death.