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  • Reading The Sea

  • I admire this book a lot more than I like it. John Banville's prose is magnificent to the point that it is sometimes distracting. True, there are sentences that are so well-constructed that one stops to re-read them and ponder their beauty. At the same time, though, it is this very attention to deta ... Continue

    I admire this book a lot more than I like it. John Banville's prose is magnificent to the point that it is sometimes distracting. True, there are sentences that are so well-constructed that one stops to re-read them and ponder their beauty. At the same time, though, it is this very attention to detail and overly dense work that makes the book tiresome to read at times. I wanted Banville to get on with the story rather than spend so much time making me love his words.

    The other real problem that I had with The Sea is its constant fiddling with chronology. I completely understand the purpose behind it - stories from the distant past, near past and present all had their connections - but it was yet another interruption to the overall reading experience as far as I was concerned. Additionally, I knew almost from the beginning how the novel would end, which perhaps is just a factor of how well the character clues were placed, but I was disappointed nonetheless.

    As far as the book's themes, I believe that Banville does have something intriguing to say both about coming-of-age and aging. The narrator of the novel has been through much and has consistently been able to adapt himself to his situation (always a greater situation than he deserved, probably) but it is in the aftermath of death that he finds himself unable to move to a new phase of life.

    I'm frankly a little surprised that this novel won the Man Booker Prize for 2005 over two books that I feel are more deserving. Ali Smith's The Accidental covers very similar ground but does so in a much more engaging, intriguing fashion. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is also one that I would have preferred to see win the prize. Like The Sea, it's a story where the secrets become evident quickly, but there is a much greater reward in approaching the conclusion.

    

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• ― moogle said on Mar 27, 2007 about the Hardcover edition| Add your feedback

人類無法逃脫他必須承受的命運安排，Max Morden在生命中的十字路口，他必須把他混亂生活理出個頭緒，他罹患癌症的太太剛剛過世，他想逃離現實生活中面對的失落，卻回到當年受到創傷的所在。他回到的他還是小男孩時生活的海邊小鎮，他記得當時Grace家庭的雙胞胎Myles與Chloe。不過在Max Morden試著重新在此地展開新生活的同時，卻又陷入與雙胞胎的奇怪關係。John Banville以《The Sea》以一位年過五旬的中年男子的心態，討論懷鄉的渴望與對於記憶的冥思，討論人面對的死亡與記憶，Banville優美的文字與嚴謹的風格架構讓該書在傳媒界一致認為是文字藝術的臻品.

二○○五年布克獎得主 John Banville，儘管在初審時擊退伊恩．麥可尤恩（Ian McEwan）、柯慈（J. M. Coetzee）、魯西迪（Salman Rushdie），決選時打敗朱力安．巴恩斯（Julian Barnes）、石黑一雄和札迪．史密斯（Zadie Smith），在英國文壇的知名度卻出奇地低。出生於愛爾蘭的Banville，共出版過十四部小說，無一不以「難讀」著稱，獲獎作品The Sea，描寫主人翁喪妻後重遊故地，全書幾無對白，情節亦少起伏，盡由細節繁複的意識流獨白構成，對一般讀者來說，閱讀門檻頗高。由於近年布克獎傾向鼓勵對大眾讀者較「友善」的書寫，該書獲獎後益發受到爭議。針對媒體書評關乎該書「語言拗口」、「內容晦澀」的批評，評審團主席John Sutherland為Banville辯護道：「人生不正是這般抑鬱、難纏？」

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Irish Literature (227)

NY Times Notable Book Club (333)

50 Book Challenge! (449)

• IrelandIrish literatureJohn BanvillelossBooker Prizeaward winninglovedeathliterary fictionfiction