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John Banville, the Man Booker Prize–winning author of The Sea and Ancient Light, now gives us a new novel - at once trenchant, witty, and shattering - about the intricacies of artistic creation, about theft, and about the ways in which we learn to possess one another, and to hold on to ourselves
Equally self-aggrandizing and self-deprecating, our narrator, Oliver Otway Orme...more
Equally self-aggrandizing and self-deprecating, our narrator, Oliver Otway Orme...more
Published September 15th 2015 by Knopf (first published 2015)
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Richard FrenchA fascinating question. I'd thought of it as set just before the time of writing, but Ann's question invites me to think differently. It could be that…moreA fascinating question. I'd thought of it as set just before the time of writing, but Ann's question invites me to think differently. It could be that a man as discouraged as Oliver could have lived in post-WW2 northern Europe. But I don't recall that Banville mentioned the war or its aftermath either. Maybe Banville had in mind a conflation of time periods. And what country does it take place in? Banville wrote about his sister's friend Dodo as 'coming up from Lancashire'. A possible second conflation?
I found a clue about the date of the story on the next-to-last page, where Oliver remembers that his mother feared that he'd come down with polio. The polio epidemic -- at least in the U. S. -- occurred during the mid-to late-1950's. Oliver is middle-aged at the time he writes his memoir. If he was 15 or so at the time of the polio epidemic and 45 at the time of writing, the the story could have been set in the mid-1980's. (less)
I found a clue about the date of the story on the next-to-last page, where Oliver remembers that his mother feared that he'd come down with polio. The polio epidemic -- at least in the U. S. -- occurred during the mid-to late-1950's. Oliver is middle-aged at the time he writes his memoir. If he was 15 or so at the time of the polio epidemic and 45 at the time of writing, the the story could have been set in the mid-1980's. (less)
Richard FrenchA fictional memoir by a talented, intelligent man who knows he's got off course.
The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great 2015 Book Preview II - Fall and Winter 84 books — 162 voters
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Aug 05, 2015Dolors rated it it was amazing Shelves: read-in-2015
The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso.
“Are you still doing your stories?” Olive asked.
“Stories?” I said. “What do you mean, stories? It’s pictures I do – did. I’m a painter. Was.”
“Oh. I thought it was stories.”
“Well, it isn’t. Wasn’t.”
Or is it… was it?
The triviality of this short exchange between Oliver Orme and his older, gawky sister Olivia is far from inconsequential. And so it is the coincidence of names, the recurrence of vowels and the androgyny of its owners. Words and proper names are the t...more
Shelves: ireland, fiction-english, 2016, art, 21-century, aesthetics
Well, Banville has done it again. Yet another of his books that has enraptured me. Of course there is his brilliant writing, but I will not attempt to discuss this too much. I can only put myself to shame babbling away in decrepit prose trying to paint his godly ability – his full control of every word he pins and pens down and his hand at effective and captivating turns of phrases (view spoiler)[(even if he writes How treacherous language is, more slippery even than paint.) (hide spoiler)]
The n...more
Feb 07, 2017Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it it was amazing
Call me Autolycus. Well, no, don't. Although I am, like that unfunny clown, a picker-up of unconsidered trifles. Which is a fancy way of saying I steal things.
As opening lines go, this one is quite promising with its multitude of possible interpretations and even with the playful plagiarism (thievery) of the better known Herman Melville opening gambit. All artists 'borrow', don't they? Few though admit it so blandly as Oliver Ottway Orme, the self-styled Autolycus of the opening monologue. I'm...more
As opening lines go, this one is quite promising with its multitude of possible interpretations and even with the playful plagiarism (thievery) of the better known Herman Melville opening gambit. All artists 'borrow', don't they? Few though admit it so blandly as Oliver Ottway Orme, the self-styled Autolycus of the opening monologue. I'm...more
Apr 22, 2018Phrynne rated it really liked it
My first by this author and I will be looking out for more especially as many of the reviews tell me this is not his best book! It was still a very good book!
I think what I appreciated the most was the author's talent with words, many of which I have never come across before. I doubt that I will ever use asportation or haruspicate in conversation or in print but I am very glad that John Banville did. And it was not just his knowledge of vocabulary. He also has a gift for putting the words togeth...more
I think what I appreciated the most was the author's talent with words, many of which I have never come across before. I doubt that I will ever use asportation or haruspicate in conversation or in print but I am very glad that John Banville did. And it was not just his knowledge of vocabulary. He also has a gift for putting the words togeth...more
Dec 23, 2016Hugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition
At first glance this book's starting point is not promising - a mid-life crisis novel told by an unsympathetic, unreliable and self-pitying narrator, but Banville is too good a writer to be limited by cliche.
The narrator is Oliver Orme, a painter who has stopped painting and a petty thief, looking back at a series of events triggered by an affair with his friend's wife. Banville shows a painterly eye for detail, he is an expert at capturing moods and emotions, and there is plenty of dry humour....more
The narrator is Oliver Orme, a painter who has stopped painting and a petty thief, looking back at a series of events triggered by an affair with his friend's wife. Banville shows a painterly eye for detail, he is an expert at capturing moods and emotions, and there is plenty of dry humour....more
Nov 30, 2016David rated it it was amazing
I don't remember the source, but back in art college there was a saying that all artists are thieves. We steal or borrow freely an image, an idea to create our own. Then someone steals from us. What happens when the main character, an artist in John Banville's The Blue Guitar is actually a thief?
From young, Oliver Orme stole things. It was an almost perverse, erotic act that thrilled young Oliver. He kept doing this even as he established an art career. But the greatest act of theft, would be to...more
May 01, 2016Chrissie rated it it was amazingFrom young, Oliver Orme stole things. It was an almost perverse, erotic act that thrilled young Oliver. He kept doing this even as he established an art career. But the greatest act of theft, would be to...more
Shelves: fiction, audible-uk, favorites, 2018-read, ireland, relationships, 2-itunes-library, arts
Absolutely fantastic.
This is a book you read for its lines and what these lines conjure in your head.
So what will you think about as you read this? Love relationships – the good ones and those on the rocks. What makes them sparkle and what makes them go flat. Childhood memories. No, not just ones of our childhood, but all of them. Which are distorted, and which are not? Are any of them true? Suck on this line: “And anyway, who’s to say that what we see when we’re drunk is not reality, and the s...more
Aug 08, 2015Bianca rated it it was amazing · review of another editionThis is a book you read for its lines and what these lines conjure in your head.
So what will you think about as you read this? Love relationships – the good ones and those on the rocks. What makes them sparkle and what makes them go flat. Childhood memories. No, not just ones of our childhood, but all of them. Which are distorted, and which are not? Are any of them true? Suck on this line: “And anyway, who’s to say that what we see when we’re drunk is not reality, and the s...more
Shelves: literary-fiction, netgalley, arc, favorites, male-author, literary-masterpieces, british-lit
Occasionally, I feel uneasy and uncertain when it comes to writing a book review. But never as much as on this occasion. I felt totally self-conscious because I don’t have the skills to write a review that is worthy of such a tremendous novel. So bear with me as I stagger through writing this review.
This was my first John Banville novel. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of him, but when I saw that he’s a Man Booker Prize winner,the literary snob in me I decided that I should request it on NetGalley...more
This was my first John Banville novel. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of him, but when I saw that he’s a Man Booker Prize winner,
I really struggled with this one. I’ve never enjoyed John Banville’s books and his latest hasn’t converted me. Too wordy, too much obscure vocabulary for no good reason, a self-obsessed narcissistic male narrator – none of it calls to me. This time he seems to be covering old ground again, with a very typical Banville protagonist, in this case Oliver Orme, a painter and a thief, a painter who can no longer paint and whose latest theft is that of his best friend’s wife. In order to escape the con...more
Perhaps this novel is more intelligent than I am. Then again, perhaps it's just a deliberately obscure enterprise which is overly enamoured with its own exasperating and self-indulgent vocabulary list. ('Haruspicating' anyone? 'Borborygmic' perhaps?) The story centres on Oliver, a decaying artist suffering the midlife ennui of feeling more like a spectator than a participant in life. For a novel about someone longing for passionate experience it is remarkably cold-blooded and I didn't like it at...more
Sep 23, 2015Leah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: 2015, contemporary-fiction, literary-fiction
The end of the affair...
Olly Orme used to be a painter, but his muse has left him. He's still a thief though. He doesn't steal for money – it's the thrill that attracts him. He feels it's essential that his thefts are noticed or they don't count as theft. Usually it's small things he steals – a figurine, a tie-pin. But nine months ago, he stole his friend's wife, and now that theft is about to be discovered.
This is Olly's own story, told directly to the reader in the form of a narrative being wr...more
Olly Orme used to be a painter, but his muse has left him. He's still a thief though. He doesn't steal for money – it's the thrill that attracts him. He feels it's essential that his thefts are noticed or they don't count as theft. Usually it's small things he steals – a figurine, a tie-pin. But nine months ago, he stole his friend's wife, and now that theft is about to be discovered.
This is Olly's own story, told directly to the reader in the form of a narrative being wr...more
Jul 19, 2015switterbug (Betsey) rated it really liked it
Irish writer John Banville is known for his dark humor, patrician irony, and baroque, (but searing) prose. You don't read him for plot, and the story/characters are sometimes self-referential, or meta- sized; he will refer to characters or concerns that poke at previous novels, or even subtly refer to himself as he is perceived by other writers or critics. This is one novelist, I believe, whose novels can't be fully valued in isolation. To wholly appreciate Banville is to read his entire oeuvre....more
My lovely friend Claire when I mention John Banville says, “Oh that pretentious boor.” Or words to that effect. However, having just finished The Blue Guitar, I want to re-read it immediately. Like a glorious meal or a sparkling conversation it is too lovely merely to stop enjoying.
On the surface the novel reveals the story of a painter –someties called a “painster”--who steals, who is trying to come back home, who is comfortable with sex but not love. But here the plot is not important. Instead...more
On the surface the novel reveals the story of a painter –someties called a “painster”--who steals, who is trying to come back home, who is comfortable with sex but not love. But here the plot is not important. Instead...more
Aug 02, 2015Kasa Cotugno rated it it was ok
I started this book several times before finally making it through. There is simply too much book here for the story.
Apr 30, 2016Roger Brunyate rated it it was ok
Too Much Already!
I should have known. Banville is an author who requires long periods of recuperation for his readers between books. A few weeks ago, I reviewed the beautiful Everyman edition of Banville's The Book of Evidence and The Sea. Coming to him then, after a gap of several years, I was struck how well his florid gourmet style played against his subjects in each case, the one justifying the other. But this time, the style seems merely self-indulgent, and the story—a warming-over of all...more
Feb 19, 2016Deborah Pickstone rated it really liked it · review of another editionI should have known. Banville is an author who requires long periods of recuperation for his readers between books. A few weeks ago, I reviewed the beautiful Everyman edition of Banville's The Book of Evidence and The Sea. Coming to him then, after a gap of several years, I was struck how well his florid gourmet style played against his subjects in each case, the one justifying the other. But this time, the style seems merely self-indulgent, and the story—a warming-over of all...more
Shelves: geocaching, human-nature, general-fiction, irish-authors, makes-me-think
I now see why John Banville is admired as a writer. I had only read his Benjamin Black incarnation and was not impressed with Quirke. This is written very much as a stream of consciousness in whatever point in time he is at (this moves) and provides an interesting picture of a very human and fallible human being who is in many ways unlikeable for his actions but remains likeable withal. There were moments when I just stopped to think about a perspective new to me or just to play with the words u...more
There has been a lot written lately about the difficulty of reading John Banville. A writer for the New Yorker recently pointed out that his books are actually prose poems. I would agree. I have now read five novels by Banville, The Sea, The Ancient Light trilogy and this latest The Blue Guitar.
I have some advice to offer that I even had to remind myself of, whilst reading The Blue Guitar. Don’t expect a lot of plot. There just isn’t much in a John Banville. Expect him to go off at a tangent (o...more
I have some advice to offer that I even had to remind myself of, whilst reading The Blue Guitar. Don’t expect a lot of plot. There just isn’t much in a John Banville. Expect him to go off at a tangent (o...more
Mar 13, 2016Stephen P rated it really liked it
It’s about the veneer. The transparent polished surface so fragile at first reflecting the gleam and shards of light. A surface appearance of highly polished gloss. A discovery made upon opening the top cover and peering into Banville’s prose. Entering into it, an eased slide, to find an artist who no longer paints. A despicable man. Consumed within himself, fraught with unconscionable betrayals while pandering to his other art of thievery.
Soon though I tired of this contemptible creep who gaine...more
Soon though I tired of this contemptible creep who gaine...more
This is a superbly written book (of course it is - it's John Banville) but I was left with the feeling that I'd just read an awful lot of superb writing without the writing having said all that much.
The narration is in the first person by Oliver Orme, a once-successful painter whose inspiration has deserted him and who is now living in a small, unnamed Irish town. He has an interesting quirk (sorry!) in that he steals small objects from people, which Banville uses to give an insight into his cha...more
The narration is in the first person by Oliver Orme, a once-successful painter whose inspiration has deserted him and who is now living in a small, unnamed Irish town. He has an interesting quirk (sorry!) in that he steals small objects from people, which Banville uses to give an insight into his cha...more
Oct 17, 2015NancyHelen rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Oliver Orme is not an attractive character. He's self-centred, self-obsessed and careless of other people's feelings and the lives around him that he is destroying. He returns to his home town which, in typical Banville style, could be anywhere on the coast of Britain and at during any time period in the last 60 years, and slowly disintegrates into apathy. When we meet him, he can no longer paint, and he has just started an affair with his best friend's wife. His own wife, Gloria, is still griev...more
Nov 29, 2017Allan rated it liked it · review of another edition
Typical Banville fayre - have your dictionary to hand for some of his flowery language- always approach his books with the sense that they're going to be inaccessible and find that it's never quite the case. Still yet to read any that really grab me though.
Nov 10, 2015John Gorman rated it really liked it Shelves: contemporary-fiction, literary-fiction, own
Banville’s The Blue Guitar is a fine yarn told by the aging artist, Oliver Orme. Right off the bat, he grabs the reader (tickles him really) with “Call me Autolycus.” This engaging intro, a clear nod to Melville, is more of a cannonball plunge into erudition than the chummy flair offered in Melville’s iconic opener. A brief refresher of high Greek drama is needed to unlock the symbolic significance. Autolycus, the son of Hermes and Chione, is known as the wolf. He wore a helmet that made himself...more
Every time I read John Banville, what comes first in my mind as a comment is that each one of his books is a stylistic jewel in literature. I have read in another reviewer's text, that all his works seem to be the same, like he is writing the same book again and again. In a way I have to agree, at least in the 5 books by him I have tried so far. His topics and stories are quite similar, usually a man of some age looks back at his past, recalling events of his life, dealing a lot with memory, and...more
Interesting..though weird...
The Blue Guitar isn’t John Banville’s best work, but it’s the one that practically requires me to proclaim Banville one of the best writers of our time. His quiet prose is nonpareil, an adjective I employ not to be snobbish, but because a borrowing from French is most apropos when describing Banville’s book, which is filled with prose poetry. Here’s a quantitative measure: from this 272-page book I highlighted 149 different passages (thanks, http://clippings.io/) that were remarkable for their b...more
Oct 06, 2015Melissa rated it liked it
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Oliver Orme, in the opening part of the novel, is fleeing his home, his career and his life. He has had an affair with his friend’s wife and the torrid details of the tryst has been uncovered. Oliver is not sure how his own wife, Gloria, will react and he isn’t even sure how his lover, Polly will react to his sudden departure. All Oliver knows is that his life is spiraling out of control and his instinct is to flee.
The first par...more
Oliver Orme, in the opening part of the novel, is fleeing his home, his career and his life. He has had an affair with his friend’s wife and the torrid details of the tryst has been uncovered. Oliver is not sure how his own wife, Gloria, will react and he isn’t even sure how his lover, Polly will react to his sudden departure. All Oliver knows is that his life is spiraling out of control and his instinct is to flee.
The first par...more
Aug 17, 2015Fox rated it it was ok
“I’m tired of the past, of the wish to be there and not here,” John Banville writes, and yet the book oozes its history. These are the dusty figures of midnight wanderings. The artist as a thief, and a far less subtle one than Siken's The War of the Foxes imagines. John Banville's novel is one of self-reflection and regret, the slow slip into complacency that we all eventually fall into and the wondering over whether there is another way. Is all art thievery? Is it possible to get something we d...more
Sep 28, 2015Tony rated it really liked it
THE BLUE GUITAR. (2015). John Banville. ****.
Mr. Banville introduces us to the narrator of his story, a Mr. Oliver Otwe Orme, a one-time painter and a petty thief. It is not thievery for gain that he practices, but a form of kleptomania. We also soon meet his wife, Gloria, and their friends Polly and Marcus. The friendship turns into something quite different when Oliver begins to have an affair with Marcus’ wife Polly. We later learn that Gloria has been having it off with Marcus while Oliver w...more
Mr. Banville introduces us to the narrator of his story, a Mr. Oliver Otwe Orme, a one-time painter and a petty thief. It is not thievery for gain that he practices, but a form of kleptomania. We also soon meet his wife, Gloria, and their friends Polly and Marcus. The friendship turns into something quite different when Oliver begins to have an affair with Marcus’ wife Polly. We later learn that Gloria has been having it off with Marcus while Oliver w...more
Apr 03, 2015Konstantin rated it really liked it
[rating = B+]
I have such respect for Banville's non-mainstream style. I find it very witty and funny in a dry, dark British-sort of way. This novel gives us a character, like many of his other (except he isn't a murderer) who is trying to overcome some difficulty, in the mind and in his life. He is an artist...sorry 'ex-painter'...and also a haphazard thief. The reader does not learn much of his thieving, only a few seemingly pointless trinkets. Oliver, such a prosaic name, is having an affair;...more
I have such respect for Banville's non-mainstream style. I find it very witty and funny in a dry, dark British-sort of way. This novel gives us a character, like many of his other (except he isn't a murderer) who is trying to overcome some difficulty, in the mind and in his life. He is an artist...sorry 'ex-painter'...and also a haphazard thief. The reader does not learn much of his thieving, only a few seemingly pointless trinkets. Oliver, such a prosaic name, is having an affair;...more
Sep 09, 2015Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Well, why, you will ask, in your sensible way, did I not invite Polly to step into one of the bedrooms, even the dank and musty one at the back of the house that I used to share with my brothers when I was a lad, and have her undress there, as surely she would have done, willingly, if our recent history together was anything to go by? That only shows how little you understand me and what I have been saying, not just here but all along. Don’t you see? What concerns me is not things as they are, b...more
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Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His father worked in a garage and died when Banville was in his early thirties; his mother was a housewife. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Vonnie Banville-Evans has written both a children's novel and a reminiscence of growing up...more
“This is the way it is with me, always looking in or looking out, a chilly pane of glass between me and a remote and longed-for world.” — 10 likes
“And anyway, who’s to say that what we see when we’re drunk is not reality, and the sober world a bleared phantasmagoria” — 1 likes
More quotes…