The Untouchable (Vintage International)
by John Banville
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 324)
"The man in the leather coat laughed. Now, I must say something about this laugh, which was peculiar to Soviet officialdom, and especially prevalent among the security establishment. It varied from Leathercoat's brief, bitten-off snicker to the melodeon wheeze of the ones at the top, but essentially it was the same wherever one heard it. It was not the mirthless snarl of the Gestapo man, nor the fat chuckle of a Chinese torturer. There was real, if bleak, amusement in it, almost, one might ...more
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"When I was a child and heard about angels, I was both frightened and fascinated by the thought of these enormous, invisible presences in our midst. I conceived of them not as white-robed androgynes with yellow locks and thick gold wings, which was how my friend Matty Wilson had described them to me--Matty was the predecessor of all sorts of arcane knowledge--but as big, dark, blundering men, massive in their weightlessness, given to pranks and ponderous play, who might knock you over, or b...more
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Read in February, 2008
A novel of the Cambridge Spies. Excellent, and strongly reminiscent of the whole Philby saga of the mid 50's.
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Read in September, 2008
Based on the first 80 or so pages, this is going to be amazing! A fascinating narrator, a compelling story (about the Cambridge spies), and an incredible gift for language.
Update: What a treat! I finished this a couple nights ago, and right now this is a really strong candidate for my best book this year. I don't want to give away anything, so suffice it to say that the story covers around 50 years, covers all kinds of wonderful and interesting ground, with a number of surprising twists and...more
Update: What a treat! I finished this a couple nights ago, and right now this is a really strong candidate for my best book this year. I don't want to give away anything, so suffice it to say that the story covers around 50 years, covers all kinds of wonderful and interesting ground, with a number of surprising twists and...more
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Read in June, 2008
This is the fictional account of Victor Maskell, a Brit who spied for the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century, but also was a respected art critic, military officer, code breaker, latent homosexual (at least until his 30s and thereafter when he settles into his sexual identity), and poor family man (married to a woman who admits she doesn't love him). It is based on the true account of Anthony Blunt, a member of the so-called Cambridge spies.
The book is a brilliant psychological and philoso...more
The book is a brilliant psychological and philoso...more
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Read in September, 2006
I enjoyed this book tremendously. John Banville has created in the character of Victor Maskell someone both complex and believable; the story is suspenseful, and his prose, as always, can only be described as both luminous and effortless. He describes his voyage to France early in the war: "The night was preternaturally calm, and our troopship, a converted steamer which before the outbreak of war had ferried day trippers between Wales and the Isle of Man, glided intently as a knife through ...more
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recommends it for:
Anyone that enjoys Vladimir Nabokov's writing.
Last year I started The Untouchable by John Banville and for some reason was bogged down in character names...some of main peripheral characters had several names that were thrown out all at once and I suppose at that time I was distracted, so I put the book aside.
I picked it up again last week and was immediately captured by Banville's prose. He has a way, like another author I could mention of making us see the real and human side of a verra nasty character. And make no mistake about it Vi...more
I picked it up again last week and was immediately captured by Banville's prose. He has a way, like another author I could mention of making us see the real and human side of a verra nasty character. And make no mistake about it Vi...more
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"Everybody nowadays disparages the 1950s, saying what a dreary decade it was—and they are right, if you think of McCarthyism, and Korea, the Hungarian rebellion, all that serious, history stuff; I suspect, however, that it is not public but private affairs that people are complaining of. Quite simply, I think they did not get enough of sex. All that fumbling with corsetry and woolen undergarments, all those grim couplings in the back seats of motor cars, the complaints and tears and resen...more
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The Untouchable starts out really pretentious. Victor Maskell almost gets run over and describes a resistance in the pockets of air around his ankles. In very turgid prose. I was like...what?
But as I read further, the pull of the story is gentle but undeniable. Set in London and alternately Cambridge between the First and Second World Wars, it seems to be all about those Cambridge band of boys and their firebrand liberalism that ended up making themselves traitors to good old Mother and ...more
But as I read further, the pull of the story is gentle but undeniable. Set in London and alternately Cambridge between the First and Second World Wars, it seems to be all about those Cambridge band of boys and their firebrand liberalism that ended up making themselves traitors to good old Mother and ...more
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Read in May, 2008
This book was a chore to read. It was slow, there was essentially no plot line, but rather it recounted the life of a double agent who was conflicted about his spy role, seemed to have no real convictions, drank too much and in the end was rather unlikeable. The story jumped back and forth in time, between Victor in the present, talking to his biographer, and the past. Most of the story took place during and around the time of WWII. Much of the story also revolved around the main characters e...more
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Banville is a beautiful writer. Because his books are dense, they are slow going and it took me almost 100 pages to get into the flow of this book. His story sticks fairly closely to the real story of the Cambridge spies, but has a more existential feel by having the main character both looking back on his life and describing the present. The irony of wealthy, upper class men claiming to be socialists and yet living the decadent lives they lived is not lost. I think it is a good description...more
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Well-written and deeply sad. I have to admit that the writing was effective and, in places, beautiful, but by the last third of the book I really wanted to take my leave from this character, and I certainly understood why he would struggle with existential questions about meaning in his life. In the end I did not care about this character any more than he appeared to care for anyone or any particular thing. The emptiness theme was almost oppressive. Effective, convincing, but eventually unsat...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.10 (174 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.08 (161 ratings) number of reviews: 23
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"When I was a child and heard about angels, I was both frightened and fascinated by the thought of these enormous, invisible presences in our midst. I conceived of them not as white-robed androgynes with yellow locks and thick gold wings, which was how my friend Matty Wilson had described them to me--Matty was the predecessor of all sorts of arcane knowledge--but as big, dark, blundering men, massive in their weightlessness, given to pranks and ponderous play, who might knock you over, or break you in half, without meaning to. When a child from Miss Molyneaux's infant school in Carrickdrum fell under the hoofs of a dray-horse one day and was trampled to death,I, a watchful six year old, knew who was to blame; I pictured his guardian angel standing over the child's crushed form with his big hands helplessly extended, not sure whether to be contrite or to laugh."
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