Banville'sThe Untouchableconcerns the suddenly-exposed double agent Victor Maskell, a character based on the real Cambridge intellectual elites who famously spied on the United Kingdom in the middle of the 20th century. But Maskell--scholar, adventurer, soldier, art curator and more--respected and still living in England well past his retirement from espionage, looked like he was going to get away with it when unexpectedly, in his 70s and sick with cancer, he is unmasked. The question of why, and by whom assumes less importance for Maskell than the soul-searching questions of who, ultimately, he really is, why he spied in the first place, and whether his many-faceted existence adds up to an authentic life.
The Sea - John Banville
Incandescent prose. Beautifully textured characterisation. Transparent narratives. The
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adjectives to describe the writing of John Banville are all affirmative, andThe Seais a ringing affirmation of all his best qualities. His publishers are claiming that this novel by the Booker-shortlisted author is his finest yet, and while that claim may have an element of hyperbole, there is no denying that this perfectly balanced book is among the writer's most accomplished work.Max Morden has reached a crossroads in his life, and is trying hard to deal with several disturbing things. A recent loss is still taking its toll on him, and a trauma in his past is similarly proving hard to deal with. He decides that he will return to a town on the coast at which he spent a memorable holiday when a boy. His memory of that time devolves on the charismatic Grace family, particularly the seductive twins Myles and Chloe. In a very short time, Max found himself drawn into a strange relationship with them, and pursuant events left their mark on him for the rest of his life. But will he be able to exorcise those memories of the past?The fashion in which John Banville draws the reader into this hypnotic and disturbing world isnon pareil, and the very complex relationships between his brilliantly delineated cast of characters are orchestrated with a master's skill. As in such books asShroudandThe Book of Evidence, the author eschews the obvious at all times, and the narrative is delivered with subtlety and understatement. The genuine moments of drama, when they do occur, are commensurately more powerful. --Barry Forshaw
Advantages: A powerful novel with excellent prose Disadvantages: Nil
...JohnBanville, for his novel The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize for the year 2005. The Sea has waves of a sublime prose characterized by ardent brilliance and beautiful texture. The novel is a journey through memory and its rising tides move through the present and the past. Banville has created a literary masterpiece with his usual style of first person narration. His remarkable craftsmanship has produced an artistic work, which is awesome, luminous and piercingly beautiful. He has described everything with scientific precision and a poetic language. I went back several times to the previously read pages of the novel to marvel once again the beauty of the sentences woven with elegant and evocative words and I was again mesmerized by the sweetness of his exquisite prose. You will definitely attain utmost satisfaction, if you imbibe his...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Excellent writing Disadvantages: Bit thin on plot
...JohnBanville is an author much feted by literary critics who has also, to be fair, had some success with sales without boasting the instant recognisability of a Rushdie or Ishiguro. The Booker-Prize short-listed effort "The Book of Evidence", about a dispassionate murderer, was his commercial breakthrough.
It is "The Sea" which will guarantee his place in the history books through having beaten off, in my view, the strongest short-list of contenders ever to win the Man Booker Prize last year.
Calling any work of art "the sea" or including the sea in a title is always problematic. Unless the word is used in a purely descriptive sense the sea covers such a variety of metaphors and meanings, some of them highly personal, that you do wonder what an author is trying to convey to his readers. Having read the novel I wasn't sure why Banville...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Quality writing; interesting issues discussed. Disadvantages: Not the crime thriller it is described as.
...Firstly - Please note that although this book is listed as Children's Fiction, it is definitely not a children's book!
Benjamin Black is the name that Booker Prize winning author JohnBanville uses to write crime fiction.
The story is set in 1950s Dublin, and the central character is Quirke, who is a pathologist.
One night, he comes accross his paediatrician brother-in-law seemingly falsifying a death certificate of a young woman called Christine Falls. Intrigued, and increasingly unable to let go of the story, Quirke embarks on a mission to find out what really happened to Christine and why.
Black covers issues such as adoption, the Church's control over people in Ireland, Irish Americans, and family relationships.
As far as a crime/thriller/page-turner goes, I would say that the book doesnt really work. According to the reviews...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: A powerful novel with excellent prose Disadvantages: Nil
...JohnBanville, for his novel The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize for the year 2005. The Sea has waves of a sublime prose characterized by ardent brilliance and beautiful texture. The novel is a journey through memory and its rising tides move through the present and the past. Banville has created a literary masterpiece with his usual style of first person narration. His remarkable craftsmanship has produced an artistic work, which is awesome, luminous and piercingly beautiful. He has described everything with scientific precision and a poetic language. I went back several times to the previously read pages of the novel to marvel once again the beauty of the sentences woven with elegant and evocative words and I was again mesmerized by the sweetness of his exquisite prose. You will definitely attain utmost satisfaction, if you imbibe his...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Excellent writing Disadvantages: Bit thin on plot
...JohnBanville is an author much feted by literary critics who has also, to be fair, had some success with sales without boasting the instant recognisability of a Rushdie or Ishiguro. The Booker-Prize short-listed effort "The Book of Evidence", about a dispassionate murderer, was his commercial breakthrough.
It is "The Sea" which will guarantee his place in the history books through having beaten off, in my view, the strongest short-list of contenders ever to win the Man Booker Prize last year.
Calling any work of art "the sea" or including the sea in a title is always problematic. Unless the word is used in a purely descriptive sense the sea covers such a variety of metaphors and meanings, some of them highly personal, that you do wonder what an author is trying to convey to his readers. Having read the novel I wasn't sure why Banville...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Couldn't find any. Disadvantages: Too many to write down here.
...I always like to take appropriate reading matter with me when going on holiday, when I knew I'd go to the Algarve in Portugal I browsed through Amazon and found the novel The Sea by JohnBanville, I thought it was just perfect for some days on the beach. I have to add that I knew nothing about the author or the book, I did not know that Banville (born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945) won the Man Booker Prize with this novel in 2005, but when I discovered this news in the blurbs I was happy to have ordered a good book indeed.
But is it a good book?
I've also learnt from the blurbs that Banville is famous for his poetic language, Seamus Heaney, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 calls Banville an 'arch stylist', fine, I love language as such and looked forward to the reading. The first pages describing the sea...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
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