Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
One Sentence Description:
In The Sea, Max Morden delves into his past, dealing with trauma, grief, love, and loss surrounding his time at small sea-side town.
⛰ What It’s About
Max Morden is an old art historian who had recently suffered a tragic loss, and decided to return to the sea-side town of Ballyless that he used to visit when he was young. During this time, he recounts his escapades with a quaint family of four that were staying in a nearby house, the Cedars. It was with this family, the Graces, that Max learned much about himself and grew to know the family, especially the two children, Myles and Chloe, very well. It was a magical time, except the following events would continue to haunt him for the rest of his life.
🔍 How I Discovered It
This book was on the Man Booker Prize list and I was looking for some literature related to the ocean. The Sea caught my eye as being interesting and ended up choosing it.
🧠 Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about The Sea.
The writing is impeccable. The imagery, descriptions of characters, the development of a world on the beach, are all incredibly well done. One minor problem I have with Banville’s writing is that he is almost pedantic, using very niche or uncommon words. Sometimes, they’re useful in more vividly describing a scene or an event, but they can also be distracting from the story.
Everything seems to flow quite nicely, even when the narrator, Max, switches the stories he’s telling. He will be telling a story from his childhood, then something will spark him into relating a similar tale from decades later. This structure I enjoy, as it’s almost as if you’re just following his thoughts or he’s telling the story directly to you.
It’s beautiful writing, but it takes a long time for anything significant to develop. At times, it is quite easy to become bored of it. It was an odd experience, because I kept feeling a bit tired of it, and yet, for some reason, I was always coming back to it.
I am also unsure of what to feel about the protagonist and narrator, Max. In some ways, I don’t think we are supposed to necessary like who he is, but more so relate to the joy and grief he experiences. He is a bit of an insensitive old man when telling the story, and when he was a kid, he described his mind as “filthy”.
The Sea is quite emotional, and I believe you have to read it to the very end to have the full weight of the story. I believe it was a good read, but not necessarily one of my favourites.
What I Liked About It
I loved the imagery and the structure of the narrative in the book, as it was beautiful and flowed very well.
What I Didn’t Like About It
Sometimes Banville’s writing could become a bit pedantic, which could sometimes detract from the story.
🥰 Who Would Like It?
I think The Sea is best for anyone who wants a quiet read. This book deals with loss, but it is a nice read that you can take your time with and absorb peacefully. This book would be best classified as literary fiction, so any fans of that genre may also find The Sea appealing.
📚 Related Books
Other books by John Banville include Snow and The Book of Evidence. I would also recommend Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami, as being a similar genre and having a similar feel to it.