Posted by Steven
on 28/6/2009, 20:13:53, in reply to "The Sea"
76.187.110.226
I finished The Sea a few days ago, and my copy is bristling with little blue flags marking passages I thought worthy of discussion.
The novel reminded me of Nabokov not only in its style, but also in the plot. The Sea and Lolita both feature a childhood romance in a summer by the sea, leaving the narrator forever marked, but in different ways of course.
One interesting theme that I don't know how much to make of is that of the characters' physical size. Max is large, as are his wife and daughter. Mrs Grace is also large, but Mr Grace is small. Max, the narrator, mentions these size differences over and over.
I wasn't so much shocked by the outcome of the childhood story as by that of the adult plot line--that other little surprise he throws at the end (which I won't name since others probably haven't finished). I didn't see it coming, and I'm not sure what to make of it without re-reading the book.
Your idea of a litmus test ties somewhat to our discussion of the definition of literary versus genre fiction. How does this sound?: A genre reader wants to identify with a character, be entertained by a plot, and satisfied by the ending. A literary reader resists identification with characters, finds entertainment in other aspects of the book such as language, and looks for satisfaction in the aesthetics of the work.
--Previous Message--
: Has anyone read Banville's The Sea yet? I must say
: that I really enjoyed it. I thought it was absolutely
: beautifully written. His prose style is often near
: poetry. Banville's frequently esoteric vocabulary
: reminded me of Nabokov at times. (My business
: partner, a highly literary lady, found the book
: pretentious, at least partly due to the arcane
: vocabulary. I was glad that I read it on my kindle
: with a built-in dictionary. I used it several times.)
:
: Considering the number of people who dislike this
: novel, I think that it is a kind of literary litmus
: test, if you will. The characters are not likeable,
: although I thought several were very well drawn. The
: flow from present to childhood to courting his wife to
: her death was handled very well for me. I had no
: trouble following the story. The novel is not,
: however, very strong on plot. Consequently, readers
: who hope to identify with the characters or who hope
: to be swept away by an involving story may be
: disappointed. The beauty of Banville's language was
: striking for me. So striking that it made the book
: quite a page-turner for me.
:
: I will say though that I was shocked by the outcome of
: the childhood story.
:
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