Pulse - Julian Barnes

A collection of short stories about how we get together or how we fail to, how we try to stay together but can't,  how we are connected but fail to connect.  The thread that holds most of these stories together is a series of dialogue-only scenes about three couples that meet at dinner parties and talk about love, marriage, sex and politics. Some of these scenes made me feel as if I showed up late and hadn't enough to drink to fully enjoy myself.  The second half of the book are stories set in the distant and near past.

The best story is also the title of the book, a first-person story about a man who cannot keep his relationship together, a sharp contrast to the way his parents endure through hardships.