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Ghosts (The Freddie Montgomery Trilogy #2)

John Banville

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Jun 12, 2014 Bogdan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: brits

I thought that even if "Ghosts" is part of a trilogy, it would not matter too much if I didn't read the first novel in the series. But I was wrong. When I was about 2/3 into the novel, barely understanding something out of what I have read until then, I decided to check out a synopsis of "The Book of Evidence". Only until then I could understand a little bit more what I was reading. Still this did not helped me like the book much more, as I couldn't get past the lack of plot.

The premise is very I thought that even if "Ghosts" is part of a trilogy, it would not matter too much if I didn't read the first novel in the series. But I was wrong. When I was about 2/3 into the novel, barely understanding something out of what I have read until then, I decided to check out a synopsis of "The Book of Evidence". Only until then I could understand a little bit more what I was reading. Still this did not helped me like the book much more, as I couldn't get past the lack of plot.

The premise is very hard to identify in the absence of a plot. I will try to name one, but I may be wrong. I guess this novel is about the barriers inside each one of us that can sometime make us live as ghosts or with ghosts. It sounds interesting, but it is poorly explored, in my opinion. But the lack of plot is something I cannot overlook and this is why I will give it a 1.

Regarding the form, this is one of those novels where the author tried to do something different. He drop off the plot and built a dense prose, something similar with a painting with multiple layers one over the other. I am not a fan of this kind of novels and I will rate it with another 1 for form.

In terms of originality, I would suppose that this novel is part of the so-called "highly cultural" literature, a true work of art. Although not unique, as many talented writers tried to wrote books of this status, few have made it. I am not sure also if this one quite made it, but it is fairly close. I am not perhaps the best person to judge this as I am barely interested in the genre. But as many novels that have made it, it has many original aspects. This is why I will give it a 4 for the level of originality.

In terms of characters, they are very well portrayed, like the characters from a painting. The main ones are mostly individualized and fairly carefully detailed. The others are mostly sketched but you can feel that there is more than what it is told about them. Just like in a painting with the side characters that are not having central places. So I will rate it with a 4.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, for me it was very difficult to read it an understand it. Not necessarily due to complexity, but because of the particular form used and the fact that I haven't read the first volume of the trilogy. Thus I will rate it with a 3 for complexity and difficulty.

In terms of credibility, there are barely any facts described in this novel. They don't seem to be highly extraordinary either, so all it remains is if it is credible the book message. As I am not entirely sure what that is I will be rate it for credibility with a 2.

The last criteria is edition. I liked very much the page numbering that was on the exterior edges of pages along with author and title. I haven't read recently a similar book. Apart from that, it had only couple of proofing errors. The translation didn't seem to be at the same level with the original as many other readers have praised the language while the translation was not brilliant from this perspective. This are the reasons why I will rate it with a 3.

To summarize, this is not part of mainstream literature, thus it is not following the patterns of the regular novel. This is not exactly what I was looking for, but still I tried to get the most out of this experience as John Banville is a gifted writer. I would have enjoyed it more if I would have read the first volume of the trilogy. All in all, my final rating for the novel is 2.57, which I will round it to a 3 on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Credibility | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 2.57 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+

For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 20, 2010 Terri FL added it · review of another edition

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