| | This is the 7th of 12 for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. For The Untouchable, John Banville won the Lannan Literary Award in 1997. Lying and liars get a lot of play in this outstanding novel of espionage and illicit sexual behavior. It is based on the life of Anthony Blunt, art historian and spy for USSR during WWII, along with his Cambridge henchmen Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, and John Cairncross. Banville fictionalizes the spies and also bases a character who writes over-rated novels on Graham Greene. Anybody interested in serious espio-fiction should read this novel. It’s also fun to read a writer that is fascinated by words. Banville uses odd words like “phthisic” often enough to be noticeable but not often enough to be annoying. He describes setting of London between the wars with adjectives that appeal to the senses, even smell. The story is told through an untrustworthy traitor-narrator, so readers have to distinguish between revelation and deception. Another theme is the contract between the truth and solidity of art in contrast to squalor and confusion of lives unwisely lead.
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| | Posted 3/23/2009 4:26 PM - 27 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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