A review by rosekk
The Blue Guitar by John Banville

2.0

The narrator's lack of emotional range made this boring to read. At first I was intrigued. At the beginning his self-centred, callous nature was interesting, and I was curious to see what was beyond it and behind his kleptomania. But then we start to hear about his affair, the death of his child, his own childhood... and his tone doesn't change at all. Whether he's discussing shoplifting or the grief of his wife, he's entirely one-note. Even then, at first I was still with the book, thinking his cold nature was part of the book and we were going to uncover more about his dark nature, but the story treats him like an everyman, and there's nothing in the plot to explain his total lack of emotional reaction.