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What are readers saying about The Sea (Vintage International)?
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-11-25 12:43:55.
(Language: English)
 
A superbly written, graceful book. The pace, style and language lull the reader into a sweet melancholy that laps at the consciousness like the sea on a shore. A very slow moving book, but at the same time sufficiently elegant and poetic to be completely engaging.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-09 02:25:39.
(Language: English)
 
Hmmm... well, if you're looking for a book where you can savour every sentence, and are in no hurry for the story to progress, then this could well be the book for you. Banville writes in the most beautiful and poetic way, but be prepared for the story to advance oh so s l o w l y. . . Personally, I found this book far too slow-moving for me, and quickly lost both patience and interest. Certainly not one I would hurry to read again.
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Deb posted a review at 2010-07-21 05:07:45.
(Language: English)
The language of this book is beautiful, and the descriptions are among the most vivid I've ever read. That said, I grew impatient with the protagonist's morose and/or acerbic tone. And I'll have to read it again to decide if the beautiful prose is in the service of important ideas. I'm not sure it is, but I did not read it slowly enough.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-05 11:13:09.
(Language: English)
Sad, sad, beautifully sad. I read the first 100 pages with a dictionary and learned 42 new words, then I gave up and just read. My favorites are revenant meaning a person who returns, or ghost; and dilettant meaning amateur or one who dabbles. It is quite surprising that a novel so artistic has won the Booker Prize. The Sea concerns the complete and transparent thoughts of a man who is grieving the loss of his wife, replete with memories of her and memories of childhood, all knotted up together. His thoughts are woven and frayed simultaneously, like all memories, coming together and coming apart. If you don't enjoy meditation, journaling, and close personal examination, stay far away from this myopic inspection of interiority.
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Linda posted a review at 2010-11-28 08:26:54.
(Language: English)
An elderly widower returns to the seaside place where his family had vacationed for years. He tells the story of his relationship to a wealthy family who also vacationed in the area when he was a boy, reliving the past while trying to make sense of life without his wife. It is hard to sympathize with the narrator because at times he comes across as a nasty old man. Even though "The Sea" won England's prestigious Man Booker prize, I am not very impressed with it. The writing (described on the back cover as "elegiac") was a little too artsy for me and the story a little too meandering.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-19 06:18:04.
(Language: English)
every sentence is a masterly brush stroke in this creation, you could ponder, and wonder on each of them for ages...
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-17 02:51:44.
(Language: English)
Well, I give myself a prize for perseverence with this book. But let me not get carried away right at the beginning. This is an extremely well-written book. Banville's talent is outstanding, he is a master of words and a leader in prose. His descriptive analyses and insightful perceptions are loud. Having said that though, the story is very very flaccid until the last few pages, when something starts to fall into place. I felt I was reading someone's monologue, it is in pieces just too reflective and felt loose. But there is mastery in the format which is precisely what I enjoyed. Do not read if you need to unwind with a good story.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-01 01:14:58.
(Language: English)
too beautiful Writing and showing off. yeah good at it. Nice
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Reader posted a review at 2010-09-24 03:12:35.
(Language: English)
Well written but dull.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-14 11:13:53.
(Language: English)
Beautiful, lyrical meditation on love and loss.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-21 10:10:42.
(Language: English)
I never thought that prose could be too poetic. Until I read this. It's certainly heavy stuff, with exceedingly dense imagery at times failing to drive forward an engaging plot. That said, if you do read it, stick with it. The plot twist at the end of the book is so subtly done, you almost don't realise it's happening. When you do, it completely subverts your expectations. Definitely recommended, but not for the faint-hearted.
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Brett posted a review at 2010-10-11 01:37:12.
(Language: English)
Irish author. Story of a widower learning to cope alone who returns to his childhood vacation home by the sea. Overall, pretty depressing.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-28 09:04:47.
(Language: English)
The story is about the protagonist, Max Morden, who decides to go back to his childhood vacation seaside village after the demise of his wife. The book runs along three threads: firstly, his childhood days where he befriended the Grace family and his infatuation with Chloe Grace who subsequently had gone missing at sea. Secondly, his days with his dying wife where he struggled to accept the eventuality. And finally, his present state where he hoped to escape from it all. The final chapter presents a small twist in the story by linking his childhood to his present. The author managed to juxtapose all the three threads neatly but at times, it becomes a little confusing. His prose is hauntingly touching though there is hardly any plot.
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Wendy posted a review at 2010-10-28 07:15:29.
(Language: English)
A man whose wife has just died returns to the seaside town where he spent a summer when he was young. Although his parents could only afford to rent a small cottage, he became friends with a family that rented a large house. This house has now been turned into a boarding house and that is where he stays while he tries to reconcile his recent grief with the occurrences of that long ago summer. I listened to this book and I really loved the narrator, John Lee, whose Irish accent just fit the tone of the book. The writing is beautiful and it was interesting to be inside the head of a man who had just lost his wife.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-19 05:12:21.
(Language: English)
This is a book of many stories that ebb and flow like the sea. It has no clear chronology so memories drift from one era to another with neither introduction nor explanation. Max is an art historian and writer who has recently experienced the death of his wife Anna and is now trying to make sense of her departure, their live together and what his life will now be. He returns to The Cedars, a house by the sea where fifty years earlier he came as a boy for his annual August holidays. As Max and Anna had spent most of their “twelve months of her slow dying†secluded beside the sea, Max returns to “live amidst the rubble of the past†and to “ask questions of the house.†Living in rented facilities seems expressive of the temporary nature of his life but it also dredges up some painful boyhood memories, when his father deserted him and his mother. The Sea is a study in memory—the way one recollection washes over another like the waves, yet how memories usually are projected in still slides rather than in moving pictures. Like many people Max’s memories are triggered by smell or “the various effluvia†but Max contends that he suffers from “an overly acute awareness of the mingled aromas that emanate from the human concourse.†This book, therefore, wafts from lupin blossoms that remind Max of nightsoil to the “feral reek of Anna,†the “milk-and-vinegar smell†of Mrs. Grace, the flattish biscuity smell of Chloe to his own cheesy smell in the tangle of his bed sheets. As the sharing of memories and aromas are startlingly evocative, readers of The Sea will be led to ponder the questions as to why some memories lodge and others fade and why some personalities like Mrs. Grace appear as “a moving figure in the waxworks of memory†while other characters like Chloe waver in the memory “always just beyond focus.†John Banville plumbs the depths of childhood perceptions and expectations of waiting in his “unfashioned world†and watching for what is to come. The forward focus of childhood is counter-balanced by the bereaved narrator’s preoccupation with the past and such painful and angry brooding helps him to realize that throughout his life he has been one who has craved coziness and ‘womby warmth’. The Sea offers readers a mirror to ponder their own lives and the different dimensions of human existence. Amid the seriousness of these themes there is wonderful humour as Max confesses his boyhood fixation with big-breasted Mrs. Grace and his fantasies about how couples go about their ‘nocturnal love-making’ with “the groping and clasping, the panting endearments and the crying out for pleasure as if in pain.†This book is a study in loss—primarily Anna’s loss of life, Max’s loss of a partner—but also many other losses which are illustrated in the book’s amusing lineup of characters. As Max ponders Anna’s loss he asks himself deep questions about what he had hoped Anna would help him to become, who he is now, whether he could have lived life differently, what he missed in life and what might he have been. He ponders his final departure and what will remain of him in the memories and fading photos. Banville’s prose is beautifully poetic with description that captures the eye. It is detailed without being cluttered or tiresome. The author is continually searching for the right word, the apt phrase or the telling image and he is overwhelmingly successful. He writes of the “dragging and disconsolate plod,†the “after-gulps and gurglings†of a newly-flushed lavatory and a woman who “had a hat shaped like a brioche.†There is an engaging inventiveness as Banville comes up with words like “landladyese†and phrases to describe a man who was “landlubbered at last.†Like his central character Banville is “a master of observing and being observed.†These keen powers of noticing everyday things and people are evident as Banville describes “the squeaking of a receptionist’s sensible shoes,†the “studied hesitancy†of a consultant breaking bad news and “the tight-lipped awkwardness and embarrassment†of a couple staring death in the face. Always in this novel there is the sea—sometimes silent, sometimes eloquent in its whispers, always immense and mysterious, present and distant. Like its subject, The Sea has an inexhaustible quality and it meets readers at various depths. This is a book to reread and to savor.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-19 11:28:07.
(Language: English)
***SPOILER ALERT***This novel is centered upon a middle aged man who has recently lost his wife. The novel consists of his mourning, his contemplation of his wellbeing, his interactions with his adult daughter and finally his memories. All of these are related in a seamless style. In the process of mourning he remembers his experiences with his wife including their initial meeting. His daughter thinks that he needs to move on that he is dwelling far too much on the past. A major part of the novel are his memories of his childhood at the sea where he was friends with a brother and sister whom he has life forming experiences. He is infatuated with their mother and discovers a secret love between the maid and the mother.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-07 12:38:37.
(Language: English)
This was an interesting view even though it was confusing at times. It jumped between three different times - childhood, a year ago (progressing) and the now. One of the problems with this book for my taste was that you are in no doubt that the writer has quite a vocabulary - he is using every word he knows and writes to descritively. So many images, symbols, etc. It becomes to "floral". But the story picks up the last 50 pages or so and ends in a surprising and tense fashion. In the end a good but slow read. It is not a book you read from start to finish in one go because of excitement... Very interesting book. But the writer is using too descriptive a language. It becomes too much and it can also be very confusing about the way that Hw jumps between three different times. There`s childhood, last year and now. And it isn`t always clear where we are in time. But the story picked up the last 50 pages or so and was quite exciting in the end... Ok book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-22 07:38:42.
(Language: English)
You read The Sea for prose, not for plot; more like looking deep into a painting than watching a Hollywood movie. The plot is simple: a rather unlikable aged man returns to his childhood vacation destination to mourn the recent loss of his wife to cancer. The narative slips in and out of real-time consciousness and memory. In my honest opinion, Banville's prose is among some of the best I've come across yet. The metaphors, the details, the words he chooses to depict certain scenes or objects is brilliant; he makes you feel like you're on-location, right there in a seaside Irish town, re-living memories as if they were your own. One word of slight warning: the book contains many a big word that is not typically found within the average joe's vocab. You may want to read this alongside a dictionary. Overall, my opinion of this novel is very high. A very real account of the aftermath of losing a loved one; and how the mind wanders into melancholic memories during bouts of depression.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-17 03:09:27.
(Language: English)
This is another Man Booker prize winner, the current titleholder, I think. The author is described as “Nabokovian,” his vocabulary will have you scurrying for your dictionary.At first I wondered if this was just going to be an overwritten ramble, but it turns out to be a great story. There are a couple of turns at the end that bring everything into focus. The book constantly bounces through three different times: The narrator’s first pre-adolescent romance, his diligence in helping his wife as she dies from cancer, and the present day, spent beside the sea at the same beach of his childhood.A truly beautiful book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-21 11:31:20.
(Language: English)
Great to chop up into hunks of poetic segments, possibly to re-read. The fact the main protagonist-narrator does not fit the cadence of narration spoilt it, a little. Someone so cold and irelatable seems ill-fitting with observations so perceptive and intricate. Tender words from a heartless character. As agreed... the likeness between the narrator in this and David Lurie of Coetzee's 'Disgrace', is uncanny. I am imagine the more time passes the more the poetry will be forgotten and the irritation of the narration will remain, which is a shame.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-26 01:14:43.
(Language: English)
After reading high praise for Banville, and because I'm reading this as part of my quest to read all the Booker winners, I came to the book with high expectations and am thoroughly disappointed. Banville's much lauded prose seems overly fussy and often overblown, and the death of his wife as well as the incidents from his youth he recounts seem remote. His narrator has an accute sense of smell, as if that then establishes some reality, some veritas for the situations described, but it really just makes it all feel even more remote - he's sniffing the bouquet of his life, rather than being part of it. Perhaps that was the point, but it's a point that's been made far more profoundly elsewhere. In the end, it all felt rather inconsequential. As Vonnegut says, "So it goes."
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-30 04:38:10.
(Language: English)
I was reluctant to get into this one at first... It seemed to me to be another 'The Sea, The Sea', by Iris Murdoch. It's definitely Literature with a capital L. But that's ok, for a change. It has quite a deliberate feel to it - you can tell Banville's worked over every sentence. (And there's some absolute crackers in there. Great when you can really appreciate the arrangement of a few words.) I think it's unfair to say there was no plot - there's quite a cool little twist near the end, but it's a book to savour, rather than race through. And if you're willing to slow down to its pace, it's very rewarding.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-07 06:26:45.
(Language: English)
I really didn't like this book, but I did finish it, mainly to see what the terrible twist was at the end that he kept hinting at. I recognise that while he is a talented writer, I failed to have any connection with the characters, I just didn't care about them, all were mean spirited vicious. Some parts were beautifully written and almost made me drop my guard then came the slap, the stab of vileness, a little like when Chloe would slap Max for no reason.Even his wife's death should have made me feel sympathy, feel some connection but she was not an easy person to like, and she clearly didn't like her husband, Max, possibly loved him? We have no evidence. She liked to make a game of not telling people she was ill and dying, not even her own daughter, he was her accomplice in this.So... we have the two stories wound around each other, his wife's death and his first childhood love that ended badly. Not wishing to spoil the ending but the image of the 'walking into the sea' as a metaphor of death and escaping was trite and again a bit of a slap.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-08 04:27:52.
(Language: English)
This is fascinating. It really is a work of art as far as I am concerned. I love how he describes the character's unusual thoughts with so much confidence and consistency conveying grief over death as intimately as possible. For example at one point he wonders how is it possible that every day objects, like a teacup or glass, don't bother to even crack once you receive some horrible news like the loss of someone you love. It is random but so suggestive of anger at any sort of normalcy and the want of sympathy from just about anything. And I can't get over how many words this writer knows and makes up ("in landladyese" to describe something a landlady would say) and how perfectly, and creatively they fit within each sentence.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-09-20 03:54:52.
(Language: English)
Second time around, it was still a fascinating read with the semi-thought-like structure, amazing vocabulary and meandering sentences (I counted twelve commas in one half-page sentence). His delving into significant childhood holiday memories and revisiting the place of their formation drew me in. I liked that I didn't especially warm to the characters, particularly the author's, but the honesty gave it a respect and credibility I've rarely come across. Reading it for the second time around now for a hefty dose of head spinning prose. Pass me that dictionary...
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