The Sea in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 29, 2009 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance added it

Shelves: fiction, coming-of-age, relationships

The distant past, the recent past. Max revisits the site of his family summer vacations and recollects. He remembers the people he knew there long ago. He remembers the recent death of his wife. He’s a sharp man, and all his memories have a cruel edge.

It’s a strong book, a good book, maybe a great book.

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Oct 21, 2020 Steve rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction

If I was going by the quality of the prose alone, this would be a 5 star book. Banville's prose always sparkles. His writing occupies an area that seems as much poetry and painting as it does prose. That said, "The Sea" nearly exists as two separate and not exactly well integrated stories. One is about an aging (and hard drinking) art historian/critic grieving the loss of his wife. The other is about the childhood memories of the same man reflecting on his experiences (and an attendant trauma) w ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Karen rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001

For such a short book, it took me quite a while to read it. I thought about not finishing it, but, in the end, I am glad I read it.

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Jul 22, 2024 Annie rated it liked it

3.5/5

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Nov 10, 2012 Sunflower rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2012

I haven't read anything by this author before, but the guy can write! Over and over again I found myself going back to re-read a sentence just to appreciate and enjoy it, something that I don't do often. The narrator of the story goes back to a place of his childhood after his wife dies slowly of cancer, and his description of what happened on that trip is interwoven with episodes from her life and death, plus episodes from his childhood in the same place. At times I found the sudden switching a ...more

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