July 21, 2026
Levels of Life
Levels of Life, by Julian Barnes, is one of those books that resonated with me at my core. The book was described to me as a memoir to his wife, Pat Kavanagh, who died unexpectedly in 2008. It is not a memoir to his wife, so much as a memoir to his grief and the void in his life after her death.
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Levels of Life, by Julian Barnes, is one of those books that resonated with me at my core. I didn’t just enjoy it, I devoured it as it spoke truths that I could only wish I could put words to.
The book was identified to me as a memoir to his wife, Pat Kavanagh, who died unexpectedly in 2008. It is not a memoir to his wife, so much as a memoir to his grief and the void in his life after her death. In fact, I don’t believe that she is ever named in the text of the book, other than its dedication.
The book is a collection of three essays, which on the surface seem completely unattached. One essay is historical, one is fictional and the final one is personal. Barnes brings forth metaphors from the first two essays to support and explain his feelings after Pat’s death. While the third essay and its 56 pages stand alone and would be a worthy piece of literature on their own, working through the first two essays, not understanding why or how these are relevant, only increases the weight of his final and personal chapter.
It might simply be that Barnes put words to feelings that I’ve had surrounding a loved one’s death and how we address death with those who survive a loved one’s death. He explores what words we use when we talk about someone dying and how he was treated by friends, family and strangers as he proceeded through his grief. In some ways, what he leaves unsaid is just as powerful as what he shares.
“the fact that someone is dead may mean that they are not alive, but doesn’t mean that they do not exist.”
He begins each essay with a similar thought, and a twist. The first essay begins, “You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed.”
The second essay continues with that thought, “You put together two things that have not been put together before; and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
The third essay completes these thoughts into this encapsulation of grief:
“ You put together two people who have not been put together before. Sometimes it is like that first attempt to harness a hydrogen balloon to a fire balloon: do you prefer crash and burn, or burn and crash?
But sometimes it works, and something new is made, and the world is changed. Then, at some point, sooner or later, for this reason or that, one of them is taken away. And what is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there. This may not be mathematically possible; but it is emotionally possible.”
He entirely and completely loved and became entirely and completely alone.
Barnes, Julian. (2013) Levels Of Life. Jonathan Capes