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The Sea

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The Sea

By: John Banville
Narrated by: Jim Norton
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About this listen

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2005

When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma.

The Grace family had appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Mr. and Mrs. Grace, with their worldly ease and candour, were unlike any adults he had met before. But it was his contemporaries, the Grace twins Myles and Chloe, who most fascinated Max. He grew to know them intricately, even intimately, and what ensued would haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that was to follow.

© John Banville; (P) Macmillan Publishers Ltd Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant  
I found me in the Sea and realised the brokenness in all of us, the futility of self help and the glory of faith which shone through in its absense.

Finding me in the Sea

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I found the writing in this one incredibly over-wrought and florid, almost laughably so at some points. You are left with the impression of the narrator as being a pompous prat - which may well be the intention but it makes it a bit hard to stick with. The last hour or so is stunning, however.

Okay but not great

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This is my third time to enjoy this book.
I will indeed savour it again & again.
Every word is soothing to my ear

Everything stood out

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Absolutely loved this book,read it many years ago.
Here on Audible a real and wonderful experience.
Lucky to live myself by the sea ,and close to the Author himself a real character.

Artistically beautiful.

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A glorious way to spend 6.5 hrs. Everything about this audio book is perfect. The source text is rich, sad and vainglorious; the narration perfectly matched.

Stunning

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A lot of words, but not a lot of story, I enjoyed bits of it, but was really glad when it finished, it was a book club read otherwise I would not have persevered, not enjoyable, felt more like work, I often find if a book has won a Man Booker prize, its a no no for me. Found bits of it rather distasteful, when he was talking about his daughter, not for me.

A lot of words

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It’s clever. Almost like stepping back into the world of Katherine Mansfield.

I did enjoy the book & the telling of it, although it’s slow to get into. Perseverance however will reveal a carefully crafted story, with some sweet twists that reveal our self delusion & eagerness to stereotype.

The internal dialogue of a life navigating waypoints marked by the usual passions, guilt and grief. I liked it.

Egotistical narrative

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John Banville is incredible - I loved other books, this one did not work for me on Audible. And I just could not get into it. Maybe I'll give it a go in hard copy.

Loved other J Banville books...

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The unreliable and unlikeable narrator of John Banville’s novel — Max Morden resembles so many of Henry James’s self-absorbed characters and narrators and in more than his name — reveals much about memory, its vital importance (and not simply to the bereaved) but also its subtle interventions in the past. Accordingly, the sadness in the novel comes across freed from the easy sentimentality and nostalgia that can mar stories of loss, in this case the loss of the narrator’s wife and his own childhood. / It says all that needs to be said of Jim Norton’s reading that I thought I was listening to Max and of John Banville that his very foregrounded prose style becomes Max’s.

Intervening in the Past

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Very well read. A story that kept me listening and interested throughout. I could listen to it again as there is a lot of hidden meaning.

Rather sad, but enjoyable

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