book data
74 ratings, 3.51 average rating, 14 reviews
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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)
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.
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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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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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
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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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
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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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
But there is a tw...more
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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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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
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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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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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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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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My favorite novel of 2003 (longer review here, a fascinating fictionalization of the life of literary theorist Paul de Man.
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Read in March, 2008
Gorgeous writing style, but the plot kinda fizzled after awhile. Full review: http://kasiapontificates.blogs...
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Not quite half way through, and have to say this is vintage Banville. Twisty, unreliable, generally disreputable characters. Happy Days!
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Is John Banville overrated? You hear these superlatives about him.
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