SOURCE: “Trial and Error,” in New Republic, Vol. 208, Nos. 1-2, January 4 & 11, 1993, pp. 35–8.

Scammell is a professor of Russian literature at Cornell University. In the following review, he complains that Barnes loses control of the narrative in The Porcupine.

In the twelve years since he gave up writing detective stories for serious fiction, Julian Barnes has earned an enviable reputation as one of England's most interesting and provocative novelists. Beginning with Metroland in 1980, he has gone on to produce five more novels, ranging from dazzlingly reflexive metafictions like Flaubert's Parrot and A History of the World in 10[frac12] Chapters to postmodernist fables like Staring at the Sun and Talking It Over. Throughout his work Barnes has displayed a remarkable versatility, equally at home with old-fashioned mimesis and abstract speculation, able to mix naturalistic mimicry with outrageous farce, and all with a Gallic elegance, a dashing wit, and a sense...