Why Read John Banville
A look at his most recent book, THE LOCK-UP, and why he "entertains" ...
As you may know by know from earlier reviews, I am a John Banville fan. I am a fan of BOTH Banvilles: the highly regarded and serious post-modernist writer and the producer of crime entertainments. He is quite successfully carrying the torch for Graham Greene and the model of the versatile writer. Both versions of Banville have one thing in common – beautiful prose.
The Lock-Up is the beginning of the merger of these two writing personas – at least, that was what the critics said. I am not so sanguine. The Lock-Up is more evocative and complex than his earlier entertainments but not within a major league mile of those post-modern totems like The Book of Evidence, Eclipse, and The Infinities – all so much better than the book, The Sea, that awarded him his long overdue Booker. The Lock-Up can be consumed on a plane flight while his earlier, meatier books may require a voyage to absorb. I highly recommend them. They disturb and evoke in equal measure and his prose reaches heights he has not come close to since. Then again, that is the trade-off with an entertainment. One enjoyed by both the reader and the writer.
With all that floating behind us, I very much enjoyed his entertainment ++ incarnation. The plot is serviceable, the characters well beyond most books in this genre, the atmospherics are lovely and brooding and, of course, the writing is as clear as freshly polished silver. It won’t take long … read it and then consider one of his earlier, less entertaining novels.
The Lock-Up
John Banville
2023 320 pages