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November 29, 2006
Personal Reading
I don't often write about non-Australian books I'm reading but feel that I have to say that I'm mightily impressed by John Banville's The Sea, now that I have finally started.
As soon as I began, though, I had this feeling that the book reminded me of something. Not that I'm accusing the author of anything you understand, just that there was a certain sense of recognition of a story about an old codger returning to a sea-side location at which he had holidayed as a child.
It took me a while but then I remembered a novel I read maybe 15 years ago which also happened to win the Booker prize, way back in 1974. I refer to Stanley Middleton's novel Holiday. I assumed someone else must have seen the similarities but a Google search does not reveal any document containing the two terms "John Banville" and "Stanley Middleton" that is not either a sales catalogue or a list of Booker prize winners.
You might remember Middleton's novel received some unwanted press late last year, and early this, when sample chapters from it, and from V.S Naipaul's In a Free State, were submitted to a number of publishers undercover as new works. Both books were roundly rejected.
As I recall Holiday is not too bad. Of course, our sense of a book changes over time, though I certainly don't remember running from it yelling and screaming. I therefore have to assume it wasn't all bad.
It's at times like this that you have to question your reading perspectives - more than normal I mean. I can't be the only person who has read both books, can I?
Posted by larrikin at November 29, 2006 04:53 PM
Comments
Yeah, but you're likely the only one who's remembered Holiday. Good memory, Perry!
Posted by: Dean at November 29, 2006 06:07 PM
Oohhh, c'mon, how can I read that? Sarcasm? Irony?
I'm amazed I even remembered it!
Posted by: Perry Middlemiss at November 29, 2006 09:44 PM
Hello Perry
I haven't read either the Banville or Middleton novels, but on the theme of returning to the site of sea-side holidays as a child, I've just read Margaret Drabble's, 'The Sea Lady'.
Its protagonists are an elderly academic (female) and marine biologist (male) who are returning to their childhood coastal haunt in Northern England, with mixed feelings, to accept Uni honours. While I don't think it is her best writing, it certainly held my attention and had me looking up the dictionary, as her work usually does.
Their childhood memories of the seaside holidays and definitive experiences are recalled and reflected on by each of them, with some surprising twists and turns. While Drabble is often considered a 'women's' writer, I think her male characterisations in this book are quite compelling.
Born at Bondi Beach myself, anything featuring a return to the sea is eagerly read, so I'll add Banvile and Middleton to my reading list,
Posted by: Karen at November 30, 2006 08:32 PM
The Banville will be pretty easy to get but you might have trouble with the Middleton. Its latest edition, as far as I can ascertain, was in 1999. Second-hand stores might be your best bet.
Posted by: Perry Middlemiss at December 1, 2006 08:59 AM