Shroud

by John Banville
Shroud
book data
74 ratings, 3.51 average rating, 14 reviews (more data...)
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published
June 8th 2004 by Vintage

binding
Paperback, 272 pages

literary awards
2002 Booker Prize Longlist

isbn
037572530X   (isbn13: 9780375725302)

description
One part Nietzsche, one part Humbert Humbert, and a soupcon of Milton’s Lucifer, Axel Vander, the dizzyingly unreliable narrator of John Banvill...more






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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 162)



Russ2
Russ2 rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/10/08

Read in May, 2008
This one will be next after Banville's Athena. I can't get enough of Banville's exquisite writing and his descriptions of characters and of personal character.
Starting out brilliantly.
I have now finished and I think it is the best of Banville's works that I have read.
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Noah
Noah rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
11/13/08

Read in November, 2008
Meh. Shroud was well written and certainly led me to a good bit of interpreting, but it failed as a book because it was just so unapproachable. This is the problem with most contemporary fiction, I think. Shroud also suffers from another problem of contemporary fiction: too many readings are possible. When I go to a book, I don't want to do all the work myself; I like learning something from the author and being led by the plot to a certain idea. Though it is a good example of why contempor...more
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Andrew
11/05/08

bookshelves: own
Read in November, 2008
Usually when I finish a book I'm in the right frame of mind to rate it properly. I imagine someone asking me what I thought of it: "I really liked it..." or "It was amazing...!" and ascribe a star rating from there. With this book I'm totally torn.

I really loved the book. The prose, as others have said, is fantastic. Though at times the effusive description is laid on too heavy for its own good (e.g., "The coffee machine was still at its diarrhoeal labours..") I...more
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Aubrey
Aubrey rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
08/27/07

Read in April, 2007
A story of a man at the end of his life who has successfully hidden his lies until he meets a young girl, overwhelmed by madness who unravels it all. The tale is not quickly moving, but the telling of it is so wonderfully done. Banville's use of language is so poetic as to make each instance in his story magical.

Intelligent, literary, philisophical, historical. I think there are a lot of things in this book that I misunderstood, didn't catch, or just gave up on. And I suspect that anyone...more
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Julie
Julie rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
08/20/08

bookshelves: contemporary-fiction, western-europe-setting
Read in May, 2007
I have a hard time assigning stars to this review. Whereas I was mesmerized by Banville's writing, I found this story and the characters dismal. Axel Vander evoked by pity and revulsion and had not one redeeming quality that I can recall. "Miss Nemesis" was pathetic and cruel. Even the gracious setting of Turin (thus, the most obvious reference in the title "Shroud") couldn't lift the oppressive cloud of lethargy and depression that permeated this novel.

But there is a tw...more
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Lauren
Lauren rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
04/23/08

Read in April, 2008
Just a few quick notes. I *loved* this book initially -- because Banville's prose is extraordinary. Really did call to mind Nabokov. And as always the plot was secondary for me. However, this time, the plot ultimately did go off in a direction I had not anticipated (Love!?), and I couldn't go there with him. I ended up skimming the last part of the book, because I was bored with the meditation of the aging narrator on his young Venus (similar theme to the recent Peter O'Toole movie). Even...more
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Yelena
Yelena rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
01/18/08

Read in January, 2008
I was so thoroughly unimpressed by this book. It was so obviously trying to be monumental and came across as so obviously forced. Weaving together a stolen identity, some vague meanderings through the holocaust, and a brief and troubled love affair between a very old man and a very young girl, while waxing philosophic about the Self and the Other - too much too poorly executed.

Great writers can tackle the Big Topics effortlessly. Anyone who tries as hard as Banville gets banished to the hall...more
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Farron
Farron rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
02/25/08

World War II, mystery, crazy academics, curmudgeonly old man, love, lust, death, & resurrection. What's not to like? It's the best I've read of Banville and yet the one that isn't nominated for any awards. The Shroud is heaps more engaging than The Sea. You want to know the characters here, or a least you're not sure if you want to know them because they're interesting and dark. Do you want to get caught up in their world and their complexity?
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Eoin
09/03/07

Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: vocabulars
A good, not great, novel about identity and and self-definition. The characters are slightly out-sized and the plot a bit choppy, but the prose is well turned. Also, I had to look up at least 50 words in the OED and all of them were used with absolute precision. A solid work, but not required.
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Molly
Molly rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
04/22/08

Read in January, 2005
unsettling. banville is great because (among other reasons) he writes characters that you would never want to meet in real life, despicable and strange, and write the most engrossing story about them.
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Leonard
Leonard rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
12/16/07

bookshelves: fiction
My favorite novel of 2003 (longer review here, a fascinating fictionalization of the life of literary theorist Paul de Man.
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kasia
kasia rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
03/14/08

Read in March, 2008
Gorgeous writing style, but the plot kinda fizzled after awhile. Full review: http://kasiapontificates.blogs...
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Pontalba
Pontalba rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/09/08

Not quite half way through, and have to say this is vintage Banville. Twisty, unreliable, generally disreputable characters. Happy Days!

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Ian
Ian rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
01/07/08

Is John Banville overrated? You hear these superlatives about him.
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ValleyGirlBN
ValleyGirlBN marked it as to-read
12/02/08

bookshelves: 1001, to-read

Paula
Paula marked it as to-read
12/01/08

bookshelves: to-read

James
James marked it as to-read
11/29/08

bookshelves: to-read

Definitive
Definitive is currently reading it (review of isbn 0375411305)
11/28/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Ocean Size
Ocean Size is currently reading it (review of isbn 0375411305)
11/28/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Lori Ehrman
Lori added it
11/28/08

bookshelves: 1001-book-list, get-around-to-it


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Shroud (Hardcover)
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