10/08/2012 - Benedicte Page - We Love This Book
The Man Booker-winning author discusses his new novel, a paean to love, sex and womanhoodJohn Banville’s latest novel Ancient Light, set in Ireland in the 1950s, is the story of a secret affair conducted for a few brief months between a 15-year-old boy and the mother of his best friend.
Decades later, ageing and with his own tragedies behind him, Alexander looks back on those youthful months in the arms of Mrs Gray. She made the first move; they met for furtive assignations in an abandoned house. She was maternal and indulgent; he mixed childish petulance with greedy passion.
Looking back, the older Alexander remembers the vibrancy of an experience the significance of which he simply couldn’t comprehend at the time, and wonders anew about the fate of his lover, who soon disappeared from his life forever.
Banville’s friends joke that he should have called his book Fifty Shades of Mrs Gray to optimise its sales – or, given Alexander’s obsession with his lover’s body, maybe Mrs Gray’s Anatomy. But the author said he doesn’t see the book either as controversial in its subject matter, despite its underage protagonist, nor even as erotic, although the encounters between the lovers are a principle focus of the book.
Full review at We Love This Book.
Decades later, ageing and with his own tragedies behind him, Alexander looks back on those youthful months in the arms of Mrs Gray. She made the first move; they met for furtive assignations in an abandoned house. She was maternal and indulgent; he mixed childish petulance with greedy passion.
Looking back, the older Alexander remembers the vibrancy of an experience the significance of which he simply couldn’t comprehend at the time, and wonders anew about the fate of his lover, who soon disappeared from his life forever.
Banville’s friends joke that he should have called his book Fifty Shades of Mrs Gray to optimise its sales – or, given Alexander’s obsession with his lover’s body, maybe Mrs Gray’s Anatomy. But the author said he doesn’t see the book either as controversial in its subject matter, despite its underage protagonist, nor even as erotic, although the encounters between the lovers are a principle focus of the book.
Full review at We Love This Book.