Scan barcode
breadandmushrooms's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
mel_books's review
2.5
Format: ebook & audiobook ~ Narrator: Nicholas Guy Smith
After his release from prison, a man drives to the house where he grew up. Now, the Godley family lives there - the descendants of the late Adam Godley, the famous scientist - Godley’s demented wife, Adam Godley Jr., and his wife. The family takes the stranger in. Later, Adam Godley’s autobiographer joins them and moves in with the family, too.
Later, I found out that a few characters appeared also in other Banville's novels, and I didn’t read those. I think this is one reason I couldn’t connect with the characters and didn’t enjoy the novel.
Barnes uses such beautiful language. But reading this novel, I sometimes had a feeling that the author tried too hard. Maybe I would advise you to read this novel with the help of the dictionary. But unfortunately, it loses all the meaning and fun this way.
I started reading the book but later realized that it was much easier to read it with the help of the audiobook. For the first part of the novel, I listened along with the book but later continued with only the audiobook. This novel is one of those that is easier to finish in audio format. But compared to reading, comprehension may not be as thorough.
I wanted to give this novel more stars. The writing was beautiful, but I think it was exaggerated. The plot didn’t move me at all. I was often confused, and the reasons for this are many, I suppose.
Narration by Nicholas Guy Smith was very good.
Thanks to Bolinda Audio for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.
After his release from prison, a man drives to the house where he grew up. Now, the Godley family lives there - the descendants of the late Adam Godley, the famous scientist - Godley’s demented wife, Adam Godley Jr., and his wife. The family takes the stranger in. Later, Adam Godley’s autobiographer joins them and moves in with the family, too.
Later, I found out that a few characters appeared also in other Banville's novels, and I didn’t read those. I think this is one reason I couldn’t connect with the characters and didn’t enjoy the novel.
Barnes uses such beautiful language. But reading this novel, I sometimes had a feeling that the author tried too hard. Maybe I would advise you to read this novel with the help of the dictionary. But unfortunately, it loses all the meaning and fun this way.
I started reading the book but later realized that it was much easier to read it with the help of the audiobook. For the first part of the novel, I listened along with the book but later continued with only the audiobook. This novel is one of those that is easier to finish in audio format. But compared to reading, comprehension may not be as thorough.
I wanted to give this novel more stars. The writing was beautiful, but I think it was exaggerated. The plot didn’t move me at all. I was often confused, and the reasons for this are many, I suppose.
Narration by Nicholas Guy Smith was very good.
Thanks to Bolinda Audio for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.
furzy's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
savazelena's review
2.0
Started out promising and went ... nowhere?
The story resolves around a mathematician's legacy, beginning with a murderer's return to his childhood home, where he is joined by an author hired to write said mathematicians biography. There are secrets, there are unreliable and unlikeable characters, the language is an art form.
However, there is no depth to it. Things are happening without any explanation, without any connection to one another (with a few exceptions); the same can be applied to characters, who seem to lack any will. Considering all of this, the novel gets boring and extremely long. I physically cringed at some parts because they were so unnecessary. And I could go on and on about the way women are written as tools for the men - the male gaze is constantly and needlessly present.
Overall, not a good read despite the beautiful language.
The story resolves around a mathematician's legacy, beginning with a murderer's return to his childhood home, where he is joined by an author hired to write said mathematicians biography. There are secrets, there are unreliable and unlikeable characters, the language is an art form.
However, there is no depth to it. Things are happening without any explanation, without any connection to one another (with a few exceptions); the same can be applied to characters, who seem to lack any will. Considering all of this, the novel gets boring and extremely long. I physically cringed at some parts because they were so unnecessary. And I could go on and on about the way women are written as tools for the men - the male gaze is constantly and needlessly present.
Overall, not a good read despite the beautiful language.
spadeano's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
marianneeliz's review
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
lokroma's review
3.0
"...the guests in their turn...registering, for no good reason and almost without noticing it, the very texture of the past, the past that is irretrievable but at the same time somehow present, gone yet somehow here and now."
Banville's characters all seem to reside in a kind of nowhere, suspended between living and oblivion, not quite limbo, but not quite anything else either. There is no plot, and the author borrows characters from his previous books in what seems to me to be an exploration of memory (always one of Banville's quests) and of what is real.
Felix Mordaunt, just released from prison for murder, returns to visit his childhood home, where he finds an odd and eccentric bunch of folks wandering the halls, occasionally bumping up against one another, but not really connecting. Mordant is a luciferian presence who both attracts and repels the others.
The owner of the house has hired a biographer, also living in the house, to tell the story of his deceased, celebrated mathematician father, Adam Godley. The pedantic researcher becomes enmeshed in details about Godley's life, and struggles to separate fact from fiction.
The chapters alternate between characters, a device that emphasizes their feelings of being isolated and adrift. The novel finishes with a bizarre outdoor party, reminiscent of Alice's tea party, where a few more details emerge, but a lot is left unresolved.
Banville's writing is superb...archaic and ornate and perfectly timeless. There is plenty of smart humor and a wicked satire of academicians. But I was ultimately frustrated, partly because I wanted more story and partly because there were so many dangling ends. I understand this was intentional, and I think meant to reflect the ambivalence of life, but it left me vaguely unsatisfied.
Banville's characters all seem to reside in a kind of nowhere, suspended between living and oblivion, not quite limbo, but not quite anything else either. There is no plot, and the author borrows characters from his previous books in what seems to me to be an exploration of memory (always one of Banville's quests) and of what is real.
Felix Mordaunt, just released from prison for murder, returns to visit his childhood home, where he finds an odd and eccentric bunch of folks wandering the halls, occasionally bumping up against one another, but not really connecting. Mordant is a luciferian presence who both attracts and repels the others.
The owner of the house has hired a biographer, also living in the house, to tell the story of his deceased, celebrated mathematician father, Adam Godley. The pedantic researcher becomes enmeshed in details about Godley's life, and struggles to separate fact from fiction.
The chapters alternate between characters, a device that emphasizes their feelings of being isolated and adrift. The novel finishes with a bizarre outdoor party, reminiscent of Alice's tea party, where a few more details emerge, but a lot is left unresolved.
Banville's writing is superb...archaic and ornate and perfectly timeless. There is plenty of smart humor and a wicked satire of academicians. But I was ultimately frustrated, partly because I wanted more story and partly because there were so many dangling ends. I understand this was intentional, and I think meant to reflect the ambivalence of life, but it left me vaguely unsatisfied.
_roundowl's review
5.0
Gorgeous writing. I loved reading this book, the characters, the language, the gods and just enough weirdness. This is a superb novel. I wanted about 250 pages more if it, though.
katcic's review
5.0
This is not an easy read but it’s Banville back (mostly) on form and has some heartbreakingly beautiful writing and the grim comedy of some of his best novels. I definitely wouldn’t suggest it as your first Banville but if you already know and like his work, sticking with this will reward you with some great writing. Like The Infinities, it has a strange futuristic content, which I think both books could have easily done without and thankfully, he has reduced considerably the appearance of the Greek gods, who again I think, are a really strange and not very successful part of both books. I loved the way it brought characters from at least 3 of his novels together in a weird chaotic mix, which could have been forced but never is. And there isn’t one single likeable character, which you would expect from him!
fergusmck's review
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0