Mefisto
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Product Description
Product Description
‘Fable, intellectual thriller, Gothic extravaganza, symbolist conundrum . . . a true work of art’ Sunday Independent
Book Description
Is there a numerical solution to the quest for the meaning of life? A brilliant reworking of the classic Dr Faustus theme, Mefisto focuses on the mathematically gifted Gabriel Swan, who seeks a numerical solution to his quest for order and meaning in life. ‘Mefisto renders all superlatives woefully inadequate . . . Undisputed master of language, the laconic pause and the blackly comic, Banville is a supreme stylist . . . He is a magician . . . Another expectedly astonishing and very daring display from this richly, almost wickedly, gifted artist’ Time Out ‘An excellent novel, beautifully written. The sort of thing you have to read more than once – wonderful stuff’ Punch ‘Few writers in Ireland today can arouse such expectation by the advent of a new novel . . . A profound beauty of words displayed by their lover . . . Banville’s great enterprise does not falter . . . read Mefisto straight through; it deserves it’ Irish Times
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gabriel Swan is Ramanujan, Manfred, Cain and Christ in one. The sheer MEANING that this text expresses is beautiful beyond anything I have ever read in a work of fiction - a meaning that incorporates but overcomes language and lies within a kind of eidetic sublime. John Banville explores the significance of the dark truth that lies behind the world; unseeable, unknowable, but essential, if there is to be any validition for an individual who can recognise his worth only internally and personally. Banville grasps what Byron, Nietzsche, et al were about in their consideration of predestination (in 'Mefisto', consciousness appears to lie within a mathematical order that is always just out of grasp) not as a threat to humanity but as the means of escape from the impossible burden that freedom presents for one with any grasp of the eternal. Like Faust, any attempt to understand this truth results in destruction.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Banville is certainly one of the two or three most exciting writers of the last 30 years, and this is a mesmerising display of his talents.
On one level this is a book bristling with symbols, wherein a young man attempts to reconcile the opposing forces of chaos and order in which he finds himself. Working within and alongside this is the puzzle of the book itself. Themes are repeated, mutated and re-presented...the truth (of events and motives, of the world itself)always lying just out of reach for the narrator.
As ever Banville is passionately in love with language. His glittering, post-modern premise is rendered with such a rich landscape of imagery and description that literally every paragraph of the book soars and the reader is left reeling in wonder.
But Banville is also spare and wonderfully witty: "In the midst of wind-shivered foliage a deer would silently materialize - a glossy eye and a glistening tear-track, a stump of a tail, a unicorns dainty hoof" The poetic prose feels pared down, as if he's considered the cleanest, sharpest approach to each detail. An method he shares with that other master of language, Don DeLillo.
So, in short, if you love language, if you love literature then surrender to Mefisto!
Format:Paperback
I purchased the Kindle version of this book yesterday evening, finished it, bleary-eyed, at 6am this morning, and - having slept for a little over five hours - am already rereading it!
Prepare to be transported by Banville's sumptuous prose in this fantastic philosophical rollercoaster. He has that utterly enviable way of making everything and everyone spring to life; images form effortlessly in your mind's eye, characters and places embed themselves as if they were your own memories - the mark of a true literary genius!
Simply superb, and absolutely deserving of a place on every reader's bookshelf.
Prepare to be transported by Banville's sumptuous prose in this fantastic philosophical rollercoaster. He has that utterly enviable way of making everything and everyone spring to life; images form effortlessly in your mind's eye, characters and places embed themselves as if they were your own memories - the mark of a true literary genius!
Simply superb, and absolutely deserving of a place on every reader's bookshelf.
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