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Loading... The Seaby John Banville
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Lush beyond almost anything else I've read ... and occasionally (perhaps unintentionally?) hilarious in its character portrayals -- i.e., the Colonel! Densely atmospheric and immersive. I don't remember the last time I had to consult a dictionary so often for a novel! I want to read much more of John Banville's work ... The Sea is my first ... it won't be my last. ( )In the immortal words of that great piece of 90s film-making, 10 Things I Hate About You, is it possible to just be whelmed? There were some beautiful passages in The Sea, and as a portrait of the savage unromanticism of the grieving process, I found that it worked very well. And yet at times I found it very self-indulgent, and Banville's admitted talent with crafting a good sentence—some of his imagery is stunning—doesn't mean that he's not capable of also turning out some rather torpid prose. I think it would have worked much better for me if he hadn't tried to introduce an actual plot towards the end of the novel—it made things hinge on some rather Dickensian coincidences and a little too much melodrama. The realism with which Banville depicted Max's grief for his wife should not, to me, have been tainted by that faint ridiculousness This book is beautifully written but it just didn't do it for me. I suspect that the main problem for me is that the main character is so disconnected from everything that I felt the same way and just didn't care. I wanted the language and imagery of this novel to carry me away much more than it actually did. The narrator, Max, is very detached, despite the fact that the novel supposedly details his grief over the death of his wife, and his first brush with death during his adolescence. For such a compact novel, it still moved very slowly, and did not pack the emotional punch I was expecting. Some nice writing, but missed thel mark for me. Following the death of his wife, Max returns to 'Ballyless', a childhood family holiday destination with many memories attached. Somehow, I never got carried away by this. John Banville writes very convincingly with the voice of a man who is slowly coming to pieces, but I actually had far more sympathy for his long suffering daughter than for him. That said, the way in which Banville subtly depicts the completely un-self-aware Max using his own voice is very clever. 0.045 seconds to build listing no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com From Amazon.co.uk Review (ISBN 0307263118, Hardcover)Incandescent prose. Beautifully textured characterisation. Transparent narratives. The adjectives to describe the writing of John Banville are all affirmative, and The Sea is 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 is non pareil, and the very complex relationships between his brilliantly delineated cast of characters are orchestrated with a master’s skill. As in such books as Shroud and The 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 (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:52 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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