What I loved about the carnival fervor was the way that it touched every corner of the city. Although everyone, rich and poor, criticized it roundly for becoming more commercial with each passing year – “Now it’s all about TV cameras and big carriages and big balcaos and girls with big boobs,” one young girl told me angrily – no one can imagine life without it.
When The Sense of an Ending won the Booker Prize in 2011, Salman Rushdie tweeted: “Congratulations to #JulianBarnes on winning the #Booker. Long overdue, my friend, Bravo.” Barnes has been a Booker bridesmaid three times, so Rushdie’s sentiment was amply shared by all those who have enjoyed Barnes’ cool and erudite prose and been unsettled by it.