Modern Classics: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1917) is a novel by James Joyce.

Modern Classics: Dubliners

Dubliners (1914) is a collection of short stories by James Joyce.

Contemporary Reads: The Sea

The Sea (2005) is the Man Booker Prize winning novel by John Banville. Its fragmented narrative follows the return of art historian Max Morden to the seaside house where he used to spent his childhood holidays. The different fragments are mostly made up by his memories of different periods of his life: his wife's cancer diagnosis and death; his relationship with his daughter, Claire; his tragic childhood memories. This novel is concerned with grief but also with memory that, unreliable as it sometimes is, still has a profound effect on the present.

Some readers might consider this book difficult to read as it is not really plot driven. What seduced me was its poetic language, its essayistic qualities and how the fragmented narrative is really at the service of the story.

Other books I have read by the same author: The Book of Evidence.

Contemporary Reads: The Story of the Night

The Story of the Night (1996) by Colm Tóibín is set in Argentina during the 1980s. Its protagonist and narrator is Richard Garay, a half English Argentinian young man living in Buenos Aires.

The novel is made up by three distinct parts:

Much of the first part is devoted to Richard's relationship with her staunchly English mother, his casual gay sex encounters in the city, and his work as an English teacher. One of his students is Jorge whose father Sr Canaletto fancies himself as candidate to the presidency. By the end of the first part, Richard meets Jorge's brother, Pablo, who has just come back from California after 10 years.

The second part gets really political and I found it really interesting. In this part, Richard and Pablo start a relationship. I particularly appreciated Tóibín's erotic writing which made their relationship really believable and touching.
The thrid and final part is quite harsh as it is when both lovers find out, separately and after they have broken up that have AIDS. After a chance meeting at the clinic they find out that they both have it and move it together again.

The book has certain inconsistencies and some of the episodes depicted somehow lack cohesion. However, I did not mind this much as the novel is so moving and shocking and truthful to the male gay experience that I would put it next to some of the novels by Edmund White, Allan Hollinghurst or David Leavitt.

Other books I have read by the same author: The Master.

Contemporary Reads: The Master

The Master (2006) is a wonderful novel by Colm Toíbín. It is a fictional account of the life of author American Henry James. On this portrait of the writer Toíbín has beautifully painted we learn much about his relationships with friends and family members, most notably with his father, Henry James Senior, his sister Alice and his elder brother William.

James's sexuality remains a mystery. Toíbín is clearly interested in this theme and indeed explores throughout the novel - and perhaps hinting at homosexuality. There are other equally important themes which are perhaps better supported by biographical evidence. Many of the themes expored in this book are the themes that interested James himself and, indeed, were part of his own novels and stories: mostly Americans in Europe and the relationship between England and America.

This novel is achievement both stylistically and in terms of its subject matter and the research involved in writing it. A thorough pleasure to read.

Contemporary Reads: The Book of Evidence

Freddie Montgomery is the name of the narrator/protagonist of John Banville's novel The Book of Evidence. This book is his confession of the two crimes he committed, or is it. As it is all narrated on the first person in a highly subjective manner we never know how much of his account is real.

Freddie comes across as much remorseless as Albert Camus' Meursault in The Outsider. The first of his two crimes readers might feel inclined to pardon him for: stealing a Dutch painting that had belonged to his family until his mother ('the old bitch') sold it. His second crime, killing the maid who caught it in the act and his lack of repentance for her death make him one of the most despicable characters in literature.

This is a dark grim masterly written novel. It is the first of a trilogy: the other two books are Ghosts and Anthena.