Book Review - The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

Are memories real? I mean the way we remember events from our past in our memories, is that how the events actually took place? Science says no. Our memories are reconstructions, where the factual events which cannot be denied, like the fact that you jumped off and broke your leg, are held true but the buildup to the event or the psychological repurcussions in the aftermath can be reinterpreted, so to say - like who talked you primarily into making the jump, just how tipsy you actually were from all the alcohol, or whether you did it out of pride, or provocation, or peer pressure - what we do remember out of it may be a result of cognitive dissonance, a mere rationalised memory based on our own self image. If I read something I wrote 35 years previously in my life, will it shock me or will it be as per my expectation? Our memories of how we were when we were 20 years old by the time we are 60 years old will be tampered by our self image of how we now expected us to be back then. It'll be akin to a lucid memory from childhood where all the colours are filled in, the surrounding is well detailed and we remember expressions of people as well - the falsity of this memory will be something not easy to accept for most of us. This wonderful work is about realigned memories and how it could be earth shattering to come face to face with our real selves against the mental picture we hold of ourselves.