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The Sea (Man Booker Prize) by John Banville
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The Sea (Man Booker Prize) (original 2005; edition 2005)

by John Banville

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
5,3991711,921 (3.48)2 / 460
The author of The Untouchable ("contemporary fiction gets no better than this"--Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review) now gives us a luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory.The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife's death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child--a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without her. But it is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled vacationing family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time. The seductive mother; the imperious father; the twins--Chloe, fiery and forthright, and Myles, silent and expressionless--in whose mysterious connection Max became profoundly entangled, each of them a part of the "barely bearable raw immediacy" of his childhood memories. Interwoven with this story are Morden's memories of his wife, Anna--of their life together, of her death--and the moments, both significant and mundane, that make up his life now: his relationship with his grown daughter, Claire, desperate to pull him from his grief; and with the other boarders at the house where he is staying, where the past beats inside him "like a second heart."What Max comes to understand about the past, and about its indelible effects on him, is at the center of this elegiac, vividly dramatic, beautifully written novel--among the finest we have had from this extraordinary writer.… (more)
Member:plantmen99
Title:The Sea (Man Booker Prize)
Authors:John Banville
Info:Knopf (2005), Hardcover, 208 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:*
Tags:2008, fiction, garbage

Work Information

The Sea by John Banville (2005)

  1. 94
    On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (kiwiflowa, Smiler69)
    kiwiflowa: same introspective feel and prose etc
    Smiler69: Both are stories about people dealing with difficult feelings and situations, both beautifully told in gorgeous prose.
  2. 20
    Shroud by John Banville (ghefferon)
  3. 20
    The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (bookmomo)
    bookmomo: Men looking back on their youth, similar issues with memories. Both beautiful reads.
  4. 21
    Eclipse by John Banville (bergs47)
  5. 22
    Collected Stories by William Trevor (chrisharpe)
  6. 00
    Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes (sek_smith)
  7. 11
    The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (WSB7)
    WSB7: To me Banville's book deals with similar materials so much more effectively than James.
  8. 00
    Ancient Light by John Banville (kjuliff)
    kjuliff: Old man old and looking back
  9. 01
    Eustace and Hilda: A Trilogy by L. P. Hartley (chrisharpe)
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» See also 460 mentions

English (153)  Spanish (4)  Catalan (3)  Italian (2)  Dutch (2)  Danish (1)  German (1)  All languages (166)
Showing 1-5 of 153 (next | show all)
A book written in the abstract that won a prize (2005 Booker) given in the abstract.

The title gives everything away: this book is about the sea itself, making details like plot and meaning irrelevant. Told in 1P POV, the main character is bravely unlikable: a misogynist needing the approval of women, a crude child who abused animals and wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to other people who became an art historian, possibly seeking a place of beauty to hide from his own ugliness. No hero’s journey here: not so much a meditation as a rumination on memory as a fragile and eroding support pier amid ever-changing and indifferent tides.

The style (and this book is about style as the substance) can be both annoying in literary overkill and sweetly rewarding in lush prose: perhaps a reflection of life itself. None of the characters are all that interesting; like us, they are there and then they are not. I was excited to read this work right from the first paragraph, which was stunning, an unbelievable lesson on craft on so many levels. Ultimately, the book did not deliver for me. The thrill of the stylistic endeavor eventually waned and while I wanted to be carried off into the depths, everything stayed on the surface too much.

Two things prevented me from agreeing with the Booker Prize selection. 1) I’m too old — if I had read this book in my twenties, even my thirties, I would have been incredibly impressed. But any reasonably well-read person over, say, 45, has seen this overall or at least desired effect done before, with greater meaning. I did love how the narrator states outright that exact details really do not matter; 2) however much I truly enjoyed specific passages, appreciated how hard the author was working on my behalf, the book simply didn’t stay with me enough, and that is a final test for me. Kazuo Ishiguro's “Never Let Me Go” was shortlisted that year and probably would have won if “The Remains of the Day” hadn’t won previously.

It’s still a win for literature as art, as a novel presented on the same plane as a painting, but on an emotional level strangely vacant. Possibly that was the intent, as we’re all just flotsam anyway. ( )
  saschenka | Jan 20, 2024 |
Book opens with confusing contre-temps as the wild sea rises over the bay.

Readers may not ever be drawn to anyone writing "...in my misery." or
drawn to the over-erudite "...feral reek..."

Plot slowly moves from boring to disturbing portrayal of daughter, Claire.

Death pervades along with unjoyful sexual undertones tossed in the narrator's
remembrances of past gloom and doom.

I gave up on page 62 when he recounts how he secretly cruelly beat his own dog.

All this makes a Booker Prize?????????? ( )
  m.belljackson | Oct 11, 2023 |
Absolutely lovely book about love, death, memory and revisiting the past ( )
  lschiff | Sep 24, 2023 |
"Perhaps all life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it."

After the death of his wife Anna, Max returns to the seaside where he spent childhood summers fifty years ago. He is staying at the Cedars, where one memorable summer he befriended Chloe and Myles Grace and their parents Connie and Carlo who were living at the Cedars. As Max remembers and explores childhood haunts, we feel an impending tragedy will strike the children, something that will affect Max for the rest of his life.

I can't say that this is one of the better books on the 1001 List that I have read. It was well-written, but not one I deeply felt. One thing that really bothered me was the author's use of vocabulary. I think I have a better than average vocabulary, and I love learning new words, but the author seemed to bandy obscure words about just for the heck of it, and this bothered me and frequently took me out of the story. A few I Had to look up: flocculent; mihatory; greet; scurf; velutinous; anaglypta.

3 stars

First line: "They departed, the gods, on the day of the strange tide."

Last line: "A nurse came out then to fetch me, and I turned and followed her inside, and it was as if I were walking into the sea." ( )
  arubabookwoman | Aug 16, 2023 |
This is the first time I've read John Banville. I found his style very similar to Martin Amis, but with a bit less edge and cynicism and a bit more whimsy and melancholy. I didn't think the trade worth it. There's something a bit unreal about some of the action in this book, which again is a trait shared with Amis, but in this case it detracted from the experience of reading the novel much more. I think there's an anarchic spirit to Amis that is lacking here.

The human side - the characterisation and the narration - are very acute, with a merciless veracity that is brought out by the prose which is both thoughtful and witty. And yet...something held me back from buying fully into this book. Maybe it was the circumstances under which I read it, or maybe the subject matter is a little bit too remote, or maybe it's because the narrator is a bit too self-pitying.

I'm really puzzling over how many stars to give it. I shall once again fall back on the little gloss that pops up when a mouse is hovered over the stars. If asked I wouldn't say "I really liked it", but that "I liked it." So, there you have it. 3.4999 stars, but not quite enough to round up to 4. ( )
  robfwalter | Jul 31, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 153 (next | show all)
"It won last year's Booker prize, so does not exactly need the oxygen of publicity: but this almost airless, deliberately stifled book is one of the more interesting titles that the prize has been conferred upon recently."
 
"His descriptive passages are dense and almost numbingly gorgeous."
 
"It confirms Banville's reputation as once of finest prose stylists working in English today and, in the sheer beauty of its achievement, is unlikely to be bettered by any other novel published this year."
added by bookfitz | editThe Independent, John Tague (Sep 3, 2005)
 
"And Banville's prose is sublime. Several times on every page the reader is arrested by a line or sentence that demands to be read again."
added by bookfitz | editThe Telegraph, Lewis Jones (Jun 5, 2005)
 

» Add other authors (12 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Banville, Johnprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Castanyo, EduardTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schuenke, ChristaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sterre, Jan Pieter van derTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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To Colm, Douglas, Ellen, Alice
First words
They departed, the gods, on the day of the strange tide.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
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Wikipedia in English (1)

The author of The Untouchable ("contemporary fiction gets no better than this"--Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review) now gives us a luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory.The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife's death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child--a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without her. But it is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled vacationing family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time. The seductive mother; the imperious father; the twins--Chloe, fiery and forthright, and Myles, silent and expressionless--in whose mysterious connection Max became profoundly entangled, each of them a part of the "barely bearable raw immediacy" of his childhood memories. Interwoven with this story are Morden's memories of his wife, Anna--of their life together, of her death--and the moments, both significant and mundane, that make up his life now: his relationship with his grown daughter, Claire, desperate to pull him from his grief; and with the other boarders at the house where he is staying, where the past beats inside him "like a second heart."What Max comes to understand about the past, and about its indelible effects on him, is at the center of this elegiac, vividly dramatic, beautifully written novel--among the finest we have had from this extraordinary writer.

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Book description
The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife's death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidaysd as a child-a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without her, But it is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled vacationing family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time. The seductive mother; the imperious father; the twins-Chloe, fiery and forthright,m and Myles, silent and expressionless-in whose mysterious connection Max became profoundly entangled, each of them a part of the 'barely bearable raw immediacy" of his childhood memories. Interwoven with this story are Morden's memories of his wife, Anna-of their life together, of her death- and the moments, both significant and mundane, that make up his life now: his relationship with his grown daughter, Claire, desperate to pull him from his grief; amd with the other boarders at the house where he is staying, where the past beats inside him "like a second heart." What Max comes to understand about the past, and about its indelible effects on him, is at the center of the elegiac, vividly dramatic, beautifully written novel-among the finest we have had from this extraordinary writer. 210
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