Tring Book Club - The Sea by John Banville

We only chose one book this time, so we met again on Wednesday evening. I had recommended this novel having read a positive review of John Banville's latest book Ancient Light. But I found it a great disappointment. Described as a family drama and winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize I thought The Sea  would be right up my street, especially as many reviews had called the writing beautiful, poetic and high art. However, I found there were passages that were really boring. Some of the descriptions seemed too contrived and the author seemed to spend more time introducing words that I had never heard of, than concentrating on the story. Even when he is being witty, ("the champagne flowed like a bubbling and slightly rancid river") it still falls flat.

That is not to say it was a complete waste of time. Whilst the main character (and our narrator) is quite a pathetic soul, the family with whom he becomes involved as a child are all interesting and well drawn. These passages are the best in the book. It is when we get back closer to the present day that I found it pretty turgid. So it came as a big surprise that most of the book club thought it was great. And I have to say that during our pretty long discussion, there seemed far more depth to the story than I had imagined, and I began to think it might have been good after all. In fact I agreed that the first half was very good, and that I had been distracted by the heavy descriptions and the use of words I didn't know. So maybe I ought to read it again, which was probably what the author wants anyway.