Elaine's review
The Untouchable (Vintage International) by John Banville
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 becoming Russian spies -- this is a fascinating chapter in English history. Banville's prose is full of the unexpected cattiness that make this read a pleasure, "debauched babies" and a woman who looked like a scarab beetle. Let's see how it ends....
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 becoming Russian spies -- this is a fascinating chapter in English history. Banville's prose is full of the unexpected cattiness that make this read a pleasure, "debauched babies" and a woman who looked like a scarab beetle. Let's see how it ends....
