After reading A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 10 1/2 CHAPTERS and loving it, I went though a brief Barnes phrase, which soon ended when I found how wildly erratic his output was. HISTORY, FLAUBERT'S PARROT and the short story EVERMORE were all top-notch, but BEFORE SHE MET ME, TALKING IT OVER and LOVE ETC. were misogynistic and ENGLAND ENGLAND just plain bad. That said, I've enjoyed a couple of his "Duffy" thrillers written under the pseudonym "Dan Kavanagh".
Also, the link between your fave and least fave novels - did you know Jeanette Winterson had an affair with Pat Kavanagh, Julian Barnes' wife? Incestuous, that literary world...