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A review by emscji
The Infinities by John Banville
4.0
5/2/2013: Every time I read a Banville novel, I am both more fascinated AND more frustrated. What the heck is he doing?! Well, something right, since I keep coming back. I think his most amazing skill is his ability to control. His tone, his pacing, his ability to make a scene or a character pop with one image, his dark sense of humor--every word, phrase, detail, is exact and right. Which is not to say the writing is spare; no, Banville knows how to use repetition and epithet brilliantly.
So...how is that fascinating and frustrating? Because while the words and descriptions are precise and clear, what he is describing is not clear at all. Yes, I could tell you the plot…sort of. The Godley family gathers at the patriarch's bedside after he suffers a stroke and appears to be dying. The action takes place in one day. And most of it is narrated by Hermes, who is having a grand old time watching, manipulating, and laughing at the mortals who inhabit the novel.
So…the problem? I might have thought I just wasn't reading carefully, but many of the reviewers' adjectives back me up: TI is "mysterious", "haunting", "ingenious", "mischievous"--and my favorite, "downright strange". Banville toys with the concept of self: the gods inhabit certain characters for their own purposes (for short periods); the narrator is often a blurred merger between two characters; the father and son are both named Adam (which is not always notable, but it is here!). He plays with the concept of time, pushing it forward and back. And of course space is also elastic.
But even all of that isn't what is frustrating. It's more Banville's way of not letting me in on his joke. Is the novel funny? Well, no, it's mostly quite poignant; the mortals are all clueless, thrashing about in their lives, never able to figure out what is going on. But the gods understand! And just as they are explaining, just as I think I'm getting it, they snatch away the logic, the rational construct that could make it all make sense. Which, I suppose, is the point. And the joke. I am only a mortal, after all! So I will keep reading Banville, keep trying to get it. We'll see!
So...how is that fascinating and frustrating? Because while the words and descriptions are precise and clear, what he is describing is not clear at all. Yes, I could tell you the plot…sort of. The Godley family gathers at the patriarch's bedside after he suffers a stroke and appears to be dying. The action takes place in one day. And most of it is narrated by Hermes, who is having a grand old time watching, manipulating, and laughing at the mortals who inhabit the novel.
So…the problem? I might have thought I just wasn't reading carefully, but many of the reviewers' adjectives back me up: TI is "mysterious", "haunting", "ingenious", "mischievous"--and my favorite, "downright strange". Banville toys with the concept of self: the gods inhabit certain characters for their own purposes (for short periods); the narrator is often a blurred merger between two characters; the father and son are both named Adam (which is not always notable, but it is here!). He plays with the concept of time, pushing it forward and back. And of course space is also elastic.
But even all of that isn't what is frustrating. It's more Banville's way of not letting me in on his joke. Is the novel funny? Well, no, it's mostly quite poignant; the mortals are all clueless, thrashing about in their lives, never able to figure out what is going on. But the gods understand! And just as they are explaining, just as I think I'm getting it, they snatch away the logic, the rational construct that could make it all make sense. Which, I suppose, is the point. And the joke. I am only a mortal, after all! So I will keep reading Banville, keep trying to get it. We'll see!