Well... That was, well, not bad, but certainly stupid.
So after a long affair, a college professor leaves his wife and marries his lover. And then he starts to question his new wife's previous relationships to the point of obsession which results in a murder and a suicide? It was unusual topic, but Graham had no reason to be jealous. As for her ongoing affair with his friend Jack, Graham shouldn't have done that. Killing for revenge is stupid.
Unlike other Barnes' novels (this was my fifth) this one feels like a proper story (Just like my favourite "The Sense of an Ending"), but something's missing. It just feels stupid. I'll give Barnes a pass though because this was only his second novel. (Three years later he wrote wonderful "Flaubert's Parrot") He was probably still finding himself as a writer. Some elements are still here (deep analysis of actions, for example)
And there weren't enough memorable quotes. Only two or three I believe whereas in the others I had at least a dozen. ( )

well-written. uncomfortable story of a messed up mind. i didn't understand ann's choices really. someone compared it to the collector. ( )

I liked the style of writing better than the content. Much of it was rather dull writing regarding a man who exhibited severe psychiatric problems. ( )

The second marriage of Graham Hendrick, a historian, is ideal until his ex-wife send him to a b-film. There he discovers that Ann, his present wife was a second rate actress. In the film she is 'unfaithful' and that hurts him badly. His wife confirms she had a 'life' before she met him. She has effectively acted in some films and even had adventures. And that is normal; she did not know him!!!
Graham develops a phobia; he skims all the dark cinemas and watches all the films of his wife. He reads her dairies and travel guides.
His jealousy becomes unbearable.
Ann, once had an affair with their common friend Jack, a writer. Graham decorticates all the works of Jack. He imagines he finds clues of the love life of Jack and his wife. In his madness he believes the affair is still going on.
He murders Jack and waits for his wife.
After one night in turmoil, Ann finds the clues that leads her to the house of Jack and finds her husband.
He commits suicide.

+
Typical style of Julian Barnes; nice contrast between the way of writing (cold - keeping distance - typical British stiff upper lip) and the subject ( warm human feelings)
Sophisticated humor
with philosophical cliffhangers; what is love, jealousy, the past …
Surprising end

-
Not always enthralling

Conclusion:
A man destroys his happiness by focussing on the life his wife had before she met him. ( )

Although perhaps not as carefully crafted as John Fowle's 'The Collector', Barnes has achieved in this short novel (or long short story) somewhat the same effect - insinuating the reader into the mind of a madman in such a way that renders the psychotic simply eccentric until the inevitable climax. One has a sense that Barnes is taking the opportunity to make a few wry observations about writers and academia along the way, but without perhaps sufficient acerbity to make them truly interesting. All in all there is a lack of passion in the writing here, a dulling down of the sensations - as if Barnes doesn't want the madness of his character to stand out too starkly until the end. One kind of wishes he'd taken the same story and talked up the madness of the people (and the world) around his character, and posed the question 'what is insanity in a insane world?'. But for all of these criticisms this is an interesting read, and might make a much better movie one day. ( )