The Sea is a first-person narrative
of a man ruminating about the present, the recent past, and events in his
childhood. The narrator moves between these three time perspectives with the
fluency that we all experience. This trait, and the stream of
consciousness-like perspective that it mimics, is a hallmark of modern
(modernist) literature. We lose narrative arc and the Freytag triangle to a
seemingly unremarkable flow of events. This marks “literature” today as opposed
popular fiction. Indeed, Banville distinguishes between his work as an “artist”
in writing a book like The Sea and
his work as a “craftsman” writing under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. I wonder
if the “art” expressed in his prose isn’t really more suited to poetry, with
its ethereal handling of time, perspective, and consciousness. In The Sea, toward the end, a couple of
plot revelations occur that tantalize the reader but that don’t disclose much
in relation to the rest of the book. Perhaps if I re-read the book knowing
these plot revelations I would gain more, but I’m not sure that the reward
would justify the effort. Banville’s prose is well wrought, and I did enjoy it
for its intrinsic aesthetic, but I want it to point to some insight beyond
itself, more the beauty of mere description. For me, this didn’t happen,
although the beauty of the prose and elusiveness of the work did keep me
reading to the end. I can’t say that I really enjoyed the book, only that it
works if you have the patience and inclination to explore a work in this genre.
For me, the demands of much of modernist literature are too great for the rewards in
comparison to more popular literature. Sometime I’ll give modernist
“literature” another try, But now I'm eager to read Banville’s work as Benjamin
Black, either the new Marlowe or one of his Quirke novels, to compare the
"artist" with the "craftsman".
