998. The Sea

The Sea
John Banville
2005

Around 195 pages

I wasn't that excited about Shroud, so it was nice to see a return to form here for Banville. Novels named after the sea are always good. This is our final Banville, which means a ranking is order.

1. The Sea

2. The Book of Evidence

3. The Newton Letter

4. The Untouchable

5. Shroud

Max writes about his childhood memories of the Graces, a wealthy middle-class family living in a rented cottage home, the months leading up to the death of his wife, Anna, and his present stay at a cottage home where he has retreated since Anna's death. Personally, I love it when characters are solitary or hiding. I think we all have that fantasy of escaping to a remote cabin somewhere and holing up with a typewriter and 500 cans of Diet Dr. Pepper. Or maybe that's just me.

The structure was all over the place, but I was into it. Banville keeps it tight at 200 pages, so it didn't feel like it was meandering or unfocused. Banville clearly loves language and reading; he's one of those writers that clearly writes for other writers.

It's always admirable when an author departs our List with his or her strongest work; you don't want to be that author whose quality slowly declines over the years. Although I did recommend this to a friend and they found it insufferable, so take of that what you will.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2013.

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