A sequence of jilted lovers visits and leaves, and the last's headlights reveals the woman herself: Hartley, now old, in the woman in town who Charles has kept walking by without noticing.

There were things of course the boy that I was then would not have allowed himself to foresee, in his eager anticipations, even if he had been able. Loss, grief, the sombre days and the sleepless nights, such surprises tend not to register on the prophetic imagination's photographic plate. It would suit all ages... a great amount of information that my daughter and I enjoyed reading together. A must for any children with an interest in the sea" Toppsta An extremely slow-moving plot is built around a mystery. The denouement comes as a huge surprise. It lead me to the conclusion that the author knew exactly how to play his readers. Like a fiddle. Happily.

Like many famous authors, John Banville used pathetic fallacies to set the tone of the events. It also reflected Max Morden's vulnerabilities and sadness-those aspects of manhood that seldom reach the mesh of language in any form. Outside, a uniformly white sky sat sulkily immobile. This book earned the author the Booker Prize in 1978. It’s a powerful book. I had seen it forever at library sales and for years I thought I should read it. Finally, I did, and I wish I had read it earlier. I’m giving it a rating of 5 and adding it to my favorites.

What is John Banville’s The Sea all about? An infinite weave of contemplative and melancholic feelings of a man lost in his sufferings. It is about the impossibility of hope; the harshness of loss, and the inescapability of pain. A convulsive probe into the past, it revisits times gone by that sets it all adrift. Constant guilt for what could not have been changed, accounts of resentments, and the restraints and combat of a man to the intimacy of grief. All coupled with constant images and metaphors of a turbulent and immeasurable sea. For even at such a tender age I knew there is always a lover and a loved, and knew which one, in this case, I would be.” I was almost satisfied with the ending, which recalls the most significant event of his youth, but I felt that it left unsatisfactorily unexplained the reasons for its occurrence. I was also frustrated by the slowness of the book. Although it is a short novel, it seemed to take a long time to get going. And the central characters do not call out for any of us to relate to them. All that said, while I might not award it a Booker, I would recommend it. The language is sublime (tote a dictionary while you read. You will need it.) and the payoff is good enough to justify the slow pace. Maybe it’s precisely because smells don’t readily convert to similes and metaphors that they are such powerful triggers?There is a formula, which fits painting perfectly," wrote Bonnard, "many little lies to create a great truth." The sand around me with the sun strong on it gave off its mysterious, catty smell. Out on the bay a white sail shivered and flipped to leeward and for a second the world tilted. Someone away down the beach was calling to someone else. Children. Bathers. A wire-haired ginger dog. The sail turned to windward again and I heard distinctly from across the water the ruffle and snap of the canvas. Then the breeze dropped and for a moment all went still. Lentil soup, followed by chipolata sausages served with boiled onions and apples stewed in tea, then dried apricots and shortcake biscuits… Fresh apricots are best of course, but the dried kind, soaked for twenty-four hours and then well drained, make a heavenly accompaniment for any sort of mildly sweet biscuit or cake. They are especially good with anything made of almonds, and thus consort happily with red wine.” But Murdoch's writing is too good to ignore and here she conjures up a philosophical tour de force with a heterogeneous cast contrived to cover all bases. And she even throws in a few unexpected surprises for good measure! Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His father worked in a garage and died when Banville was in his early thirties; his mother was a housewife. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Vonnie Banville-Evans has written both a children's novel and a reminiscence of growing up in Wexford.

This gives us the measure of the man; faddish and particular to the point of eccentricity. And given subsequent events in the novel, it is probably important for the author to get the reader on Charles's side, to enjoy his little foibles and forgive him what appears to be fanciful and conceited notions about himself. I was strongly reminded of this Banville book (and also his Ancient Light) when I read Iris Murdoch's one from 30 years earlier: the title, setting, the narrator's character and introspection. See my review HERE. Banville is more lyrical, slightly less philosophical, and Morden less unpleasant.There are more than 33,000 types of fish. Some fish can fly, some can dance, some are flat, and some are long. The sea has forests, ice, and exciting critters too. This adorable kid's book is the perfect meet-cute for kids and our beautiful oceans. He spends his time writing a memoir that is a kind of diary and autobiography mixed in with copies of letters he sent or received; basically that is this book. Of course, we can’t trust this unreliable narrator; even he tells us his letters are “partly disingenuous, partly sincere.” The Godhead for me was a menace, and I responded with fear and its inevitable concomitant, guilt.” But that’s as a child. And I loved the wilful ridiculousness of it all. The author must have had a great deal of fun purposely amalgamating farce and improbability with high culture.