oh dear! Poor Virgil! :p
yeah it would be good to get this discussion on the go. :nod:
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oh dear! Poor Virgil! :p
yeah it would be good to get this discussion on the go. :nod:
I'm sorry that I missed this one. I read it for a class about a year ago and it was beautiful - as Banville usually is. Has anyone tried any of his Benjamin Black novels? I just wrote a conference paper on his switch to crime fiction and I was wondering what others were thinking.
Victoria, you haven't missed it at all. :)
This a marvelous book although now I may have to re-re-read....;)
And yes I have read his Benjamin Black outings. I loved them, although the second one The Silver Swan was not as satisfying. I put that down to building for the future additions to the series.
I also read The Lemur and have to admit to being disappointed, when I first read it I was not aware it had been a serialization in the NYT. Something seemed missing to me.
I haven't read The Lemur, but I do agree with you when you say that The Silver Swan wasn't as compelling as Christine Falls. Also, considering what Banville has written in the past, Christine Falls wasn't as shocking as I expected it to be.
It finally began to click, and and does seem wonderfully written. I am having a hard time keeping the time straight. Hopefully it become clear shortly. I'm enjoying it now. :) Here check this sentence out:
Quote:
Immediately then, and for the first time in I do not know how long, I thought of Ballyless and the house there on Station Road, and the Graces, and Chloe Grace, I cannot think why, and it was as if I had stepped suddenly out of the dark into a splash of pale, salt-washed sunlight.
I've now read 50 pages which is about a quarter of the book. Antiquarian was right, the prose is marvelous. I love the writing. I love the way Banville is flipping from the past and present, and the relationship between the narrator and his daughter is marvelous. The problem I'm having is that here I am a quarter of the way through and there is no inkling as to what the story is. There is the narrator's experience as a boy that keeps coming up and there is the death of his wife, but what's the story? The author is just waiting too long to get to the crux.
For those that have read this, there is no need to respond. The story line will become apparent shortly. At least I hope. :)
Here's a little passage that shows the past and present and its significance, and his marvelous prose:
(p34-35)Quote:
When we arrived I marvelled to see how much of the village as I remembered it was still here, if only for eyes that knew where to look, mine, that is. It was like encountering an old flame behind whose features thickened by age the slender lineaments that a former self so loved can still be clearly discerned. We passed the deserted railway station and came bowling over the little bridge--still intact, still in place!--my stomach at the crest doing that remembered sudden upward float and fall, and there it was before me, the hill road, and the beach at the bottom, and the sea. I did not stop at the house but only slowed as we went by. There are moments when the past has a force so strong it seems one might be annihilated by it.
August is almost upon us so it sounds like time for me to go once through the book one more time to examine the notes I laboriously made to sort out the time frames and flashbacks, and then perhaps formulate the linear story behind the involuted narrative. Though I have been mostly quiet, I have to say I am making progress and getting toward sorting it out. The elusive part to me still is understanding what he learned from his rumination over all the past events described in the book. But if it is there, one should be able to find it.
I think the nickel has finally dropped for me in understanding Max Morden so, with about a hundred slips of paper sticking out of every part of the book, I think I'm ready for discussion when it arises. Tracing threads through the story has made for a fascinating puzzle that underlies what seems to be nominally a memoir.
I'm approaching half way through Walter. I'll definitely be there for the discussion. Feel free to bring up a topic, preferably one toward the beginning of the book.Quote:
Originally Posted by Walter
Virgil,
I think I'll prefer to wait because it is so hard to find the beginning of the book. I say that in jest, but only partly, because the allusions in that first paragraph stretch so deeply into the book, more than 3/4ths of the way, for their eventual resolution. And the next paragraph is fifty years later, although that is not so obvious either.
I think Banville has written an amazing tour de force of stream-of-consciousness narrative to tell a story that weaves back and forth through about five different periods of Max Morden's life in about four different venues, and which very nearly needs a score card to keep track of. I finally did have to resort to numerous bookmarks and extensive marginal notations to sort things out, but for me that is part of the total pleasure of reading a book of this complexity. I hope you are sailing along quite well and having an easier time of it.
No hurry. :D
Walter,
Yes, tracing threads through 4 different time frames makes for a great puzzle! :D Max is a much more complex person than I thought the first time go around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walter
Can either of you list the time frames. I can see three so far:Quote:
Originally Posted by plainjane
1. As a child when he first meets the Grace family.
2. His wife's cancer and decline.
3. Present with his daughter Clair and the trip to the summer home of his childhood.
I must say I'm completely fascinated with the novel, but I can see how the delay of a real story line so far into the novel can turn people off. But Banville's writing is just gorgeous.
Virgil, he also covers his younger adulthood, meeting and marrying his wife, all the whys and wherefores of the marriage that does lead into her illness, but I'd have to put that as a different time frame.
So I'd say,
1. Childhood/Graces/explanation of Max's parents situation.
2. Young adulthood, manner of meeting wife and early marriage, all the explaining of her father and his business.
3. Wife's diagnosis and illness to death.
4. The present at the Graces old house.
Thanks Jane!! You're right, I forgot the courtship of his wife. And who says you're plain. ;) :DQuote:
Originally Posted by plainjane
Actually I would split up the first one into
childhood_ at the beach the graces etc
and childhood_ afterwards parents divorce living in a flat in the city etc.
:D