Banville
recently turned 70, but there is no sign of his slowing down the writing of the
marvelous novels which made him famous.
John claims influence from James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Franz Kafka
among others. He captured the Booker
Prize in 2005 for The Sea – my
introduction to this erudite and clever writer.
I never fail to learn several new words from his novels, The Blue Guitar included. A sixteenth novel has recently been
published. He is quickly becoming my
favorite writer for a whole host of reasons.
Typically, his
novels delve into the psyche of his characters, which results in a rich and
thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.
Here Banville describes Gloria, wife of Oliver Orme Orway, the narrator,
“Gloria was her usual glorious self, a big bright beauty shedding radiance all
around her. And, my God, but my wife was
magnificent that day, as indeed she always is.
At thirty-five she has attained the full splendor or maturity. I think of her in terms of various metals,
gold, of course, because of her hair, and silver for her skin, but there is
something in her too of the opulence of brass and bronze: she has a wonderful
shine to her, a stately glow. In fact,
she is a Tiepolo rather than a Manet type, one of the Venetian master’s
Cleopatra, say, or his Beatrice of Burgundy” (10). A quick search reveals the work of this
master painter from eighteenth century Venice.
 |
| Giovanni Battista Tiepolo |
Oliver is a painter,
but he has lost his muse, and despite pestering from his agent, he cannot bring
himself to resume his chosen occupation.
He frequently refers to painters he admires and often speaks in
metaphors about painting and artists.
Clearly, he has a passion for visual arts. Banville writes, “I was rummaging among
scores of old canvases stacked against the wall in a corner. I hadn’t looked at them in a long time –
couldn’t bear to – and they were dusty and draped with cobwebs. I was after that still life I had been
working on when I was overtaken by what I liked to call my conceptual
catastrophe – how much nakedness they cover, the big words – and my resolve
failed and I couldn’t go on painting, trying to paint” (62).
Banville always
drives me to my dictionary to discover a whole slew of new – and sometimes
archaic – vocabulary. For example, in Blue Guitar, he uses “bibelot,” “coevals,”
“hieratic,” “epicene,” “jourums,” “louche,” “cullion,” “plosive,” “knout,”
“risibly,” “winceyette,” “moly,” “quaff,” “losel,” and several others I could not
find. Interesting words all -- and lots
of fun looking them up!
John Banville also
has written a number of detective/suspense novels under the pen name, Benjamin
Black. According to an interview in Publisher’s Weekly, Banville's
stated ambition is to give his prose "the kind of denseness and thickness
that poetry has.” Do not miss reading
this marvelous writer, considered by
many as THE master of English prose, before he wins the Nobel Prize in
Literature, so you can say, “I read him when…”
The Blue Guitar would make a
great place to begin. 5 Stars.
--Chiron, 12/17/15
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