Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
obviously neglected masterpiece, 9 Jun 1999
By A Customer
Though I'm loath to use words such as masterpiece about anything at all, it seems reasonable to resort to hyperbole here if only to get peoples attention and earn Mr. Banville some money. If you've read anything by this author then you'll have a pretty good idea where this novel is going but the themes and use of language are here employed with a proximity to objective, Schillerian perfection never matched before or since. This is one of the very few books I continually foist upon all my friends in the hope that they will recognise its wonderful malignancy and sour humour and palpable, impressionist nuance. No-one gets it. Maybe it's an Irish thing. Guardian reviews constantly cite Banville's extrordinary use of language but this (and all the others, although Ghosts is probably taking advantage of the publisher's flushed benevolence) is more than an excercise or dank adventure in prose. It is seeped in the traditions of Joyce, Beckett, Nabakov, your own life. Start here and then trace the lives of the characters through the oblique variations in subsequent novels. The lives of the Enlightenment physicists are gorgeous too, Kepler in particular.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A dark, gritty and compelling read., 15 Mar 2007
This is my second Banville, after `The Untouchable', and third if I include `Christine Falls' written under his nom de plume - Benjamin Black. Much comment has been made regarding JB's style and the need for the reader to have a dictionary/thesaurus close at hand to unearth the meaning of a word here and there. I am no exception in that regard; whilst I read widely I do not consider myself to be particularly well-read and yet enjoyed looking up the odd word/expression and found it enhanced the meaning. I also suspect he is having a bit of fun: an example being the description of Montgomery's post-coital state as being `...balanic, ataraxic bliss...'
Lots of words would describe the story: dark, gritty, compelling . All somewhat clichéd and unbanvillian for which I apologise, but a great read nevertheless.
I am delighted to have discovered this author and have no hesitation in giving this book, along with `The Untouchable' a 5-star rating and am looking forward to his others.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
He Murdered Her Because He Could, 7 Dec 2000
John Banville's novel, The Book of Evidence, is a short grim first-person narrative by an accused murderer. That narrator, Frederick Montgomery, tells his life story and about his crime as he awaits his trial in jail. Freddie committed two crimes; he stole a Dutch master painting and murdered the maid who caught him in the act. He simply murdered the girl because he was physically able to do so, however, he can only wonder why the painting had moved him so much. Through Freddie, Banville captures both the admirable and the hellish sides of human nature. Frederick speaks of Bunter, the evil side to every human. It was because of Bunter, that he was able to murder the maid. From the beginning, Frederick proclaims his guilt, however, Banville lay's many subtle hints to the whole story being the mere imagination of a madman, as Frederick states in the closing sentence, "True, Inspector? . . . All of it. None of it. Only the shame." In closing, Mr. Banville has accomplished the near impossible; he created a monster the reader could love.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by John Banville
by John Banville
by John Banville
by John Banville
