Athena

Rating:
Summary: Captivating language.
Review: Banville proves that Nabokov is not the only author who can envelope a reader in a plot of sensuality and obsession. Each reader who has had a tragic love affair (real or imagined) will see themself in this story of self deception.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating language.
Review: Banville writes exquisitely. Athena should be read slowly, like a fine meal. Interested readers might be advised to read his Book of Evidence, then Ghosts, before turning to this one.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Headache
Review: Infamy, death, darkness, desire, self loathing, knowledge, art, and most importantly, words. An astounding book with all the elements of life. Wuthering Hieghts was my identifying novel at sixteen. This is the mascot for the mid-twenties. Perhaps at thirty I'll look back recognizing my silliness??

Rating:
Summary: Open To Interpretation
Review: This is the 4th work by Mr. John Banville that I have read, and I am nearly finished with his fifth. There is much that is factual about this writer, amongst these would be, his intellect, his range as a writer, and the competency he writes with while ranging through very different subject matter and material. As others have noted he is adept with metaphor. I feel his talent is not that he uses the device so frequently, but does so with such a subtle touch, it is more akin to absorbing his thoughts, as opposed to checking them off, or making a list.

This is easily the most difficult of his works that I have been through. This is not because he is vague, or style overrides substance. He is clear in what he says; placing it all into proper context and order is another matter. I do not suggest this book is an exercise in chaos. I do feel it is a reading experience that is in fact as far from definitive as the book jacket suggests it to be. Another reader has suggested that prior to reading this book that, "Ghosts", and "Book Of Evidence", should be read first. I am sufficiently unsure that I came away from the book with the Author's entire message, so if you can read the other two first, it may help.

Primarily written in the first person in the voice of, "Morrow", a new name to distance himself from a past, allows the reader to listen in as he recounts his period of time with, "A". At times we witness events in the present, but more frequently we are told of what has already taken place, what decisions were made and why. Just the explanation of how Morrow arrived at his new name will either bore you, or entice you into Mr. Banville's narrative style. For Morrow nearly everything is the result of, or likened to another, be it an event, a person, a name, or a moment in time. The relationships he devises are indicative not of a man who was an unsuccessful felon, but more of a mind bordering on that of an Oxford Don.

Regardless of how well educated our narrator is, he is also willing to engage in a relationship with "A" that evolves into what some may compare to Nabokov, although this time age is not the issue. And then there are the balance of the cast all that are creatures that might be termed, "Banvillian", just as Marley and Drood are classified Dickensian. Dickens players had their kinks just as Banville's do, although Banville's are closer to seriously bent than kinked.

The plot line that is sketched on the jacket of our Morrow and some paintings of dubious status together with a mention of "A" does not begin to explore the depths of this work. As has been the case with all the books I have read, his writing is so well constructed, his characters so well detailed, that even if the surface storyline is as far as you choose to go, you will be rewarded. However, to do so would cheat you, of all that is there to be interpreted, and all that is almost there, or almost definitively referred to.

This Author's more existential work may be more of an acquired taste, than, "Doctor Copernicus", or, "Kepler". In any event any reader who enjoys talented writing will find time well used that is spent with Mr. Banville's work.