''Talking It Over'' is a novel by

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and '' Art ...

published in 1991, it won the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works written ...

Étranger the following year. It concerns a

love triangle A love triangle or eternal triangle is a scenario or circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing or involved in a romantic relationship with one person, or in which one person in a romantic relationship with so ...

in which each of the three people concerned (and occasionally others) take it in turns to tell the story from their perspective using

first person narrative A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...

. Stuart and Oliver have been best friends since school but are opposite in character. As Stuart is marrying Gillian, Oliver falls in love with her and plots to win her reciprocal affection. The story is continued in the novel '' Love, etc'' set 10 years later.

Film Adaptation

In 1996 ''Talking it Over'' was adapted into a French film also called ''Love Etc.'' starring

Yvan Attal Yvan is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Jacques-Yvan Morin, GOQ (born 1931), politician in Quebec, Canada *Marc-Yvan Côté (born 1947), former Quebec politician and Cabinet Minister for the Quebec Liberal Party *Maurice-Yvan S ...

Charles Berling Charles Berling (born 30 April 1958) is a French actor, director and screenwriter. Life and career Charles Berling, son of a navy doctor, is also the nephew of the literary critic Raymond Picard. His mother, Nadia, "only daughter of (French) se ...

and

Charlotte Gainsbourg Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon I ...

References

External links

The Complete Review
* {{Julian Barnes Novels by Julian Barnes 1991 British novels Jonathan Cape books British novels adapted into films First-person narrative novels Novels with multiple narrators