This little book has a purpose that is weightily monumental: It's a Taj Mahal made of paper, not white marble.
LEVELS OF LIFE, by Julian Barnes. Cape, 2013, 128 pp., ￡10.99 (hardcover)
Shah Jahan built the minareted tomb for his third wife when she died after delivering their 14th child; Barnes, who is uxorious — as he points out — in the strict sense of the word, is writing here to commemorate his one irreplaceable wife, British literary agent Pat Kavanagh, who was in a sense the "onlie begetter" of his 20 books and who remains the dedicatee of whatever he writes, even though she died in 2008. Barnes once adopted her surname as a pseudonym. Now in "Levels of Life" she is honored as a co-creator, with her own photograph — quizzical, challenging, gloriously beautiful — on the back flap beneath his.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.