The Sea

By: John Banville

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The author of The Untouchable (“contemporary fiction gets no better than this”—Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review) now gives us a luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory.

The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife’s death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child—a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without her. But it is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled vacationing family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time. The seductive mother; the imperious father; the twins—Chloe, fiery and forthright, and Myles, silent and expressionless—in whose mysterious connection Max became profoundly entangled, each of them a part of the “barely bearable raw immediacy” of his childhood memories. Interwoven with this story are Morden’s memories of his wife, Anna—of their life together, of her death—and the moments, both significant and mundane, that make up his life now: his relationship with his grown daughter, Claire, desperate to pull him from his grief; and with the other boarders at the house where he is staying, where the past beats inside him “like a second heart.”

What Max comes to understand about the past, and about its indelible effects on him, is at the center of this elegiac, vividly dramatic, beautifully written novel—among the finest we have had from this extraordinary writer.

©2005 John Banville (P)2006 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Remarkable. . . . The power and strangeness and piercing beauty of [The Sea is] a wonder.” —The Washington Post Book World

“With his fastidious wit and exquisite style, John Banville is the heir to Nabokov. . . . The Sea [is] his best novel so far.” —The Sunday Telegraph

“A gem. . . . [The sea] is a presence on every page, its ceaseless undulations echoing constantly in the cadences of the prose. This novel shouldn't simply be read. It needs to be heard, for its sound is intoxicating. . . . A winning work of art.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

I was bored

What did you like best about The Sea? What did you like least?

The book has beautiful writing, but the story, for me, was just dull. The main character just didn't interest me.

OVERWHELMINGLY FINE

The book itself deserves the Booker prize it received and anything else possible in the way of awards. The contrast between the deeply sad story and the intensely gorgeous language evokes that paradox of despair expressed in beauty. I heard about the book in a round-about way and at first took it for a far older work, the author's willingness to lavish language, description, simile, so fooled me.
What makes THIS version so outstanding, however, is the reading by John Lee. His voice, phrasing, and emphasis are so perfect, his timing especially so apt, that I have trouble imagining the book without it.

Delicious writing!

This was some of the the most well-crafted prose I have encountered in years. The book is exquisite in all respects, and the narrator’s voice and presentation spot-on perfect. Highly recommended!

Great story but mediocre performance

Banville's work is great, but unfortunately the way John Lee reads it takes away some of the beauty of the prose.

Verbose and different narrator needed

I do think John Lee is a great narrator. He is not the right choice for this book. An Irish narrator would have been a better choice.

As for the book, the verbose flux is not my style.

The past beats inside me like a second heart.

Over the years, I've collected about 2 or 3 Banville books. The first was given to me by a girl I liked in HS, but never got around to reading it or dating her. I was finally inspired (or moved?) to read 'the Sea' (and a couple other Ireland-themed novels) because I was going to spend a week with the wife in Ireland and there is nothing better to read about on vacation than sex*, death, loss and sand. It was beautiful. It was poetry. It was nearly perfect.

It is easy to borrow images and allusions from other critics. It is easy to park Banville next to Beckett or Joyce (yes, fine, they all dropped from their mother's wombs onto the same emerald island). It is easy to play the literary cousin game and compare Banville to Proust or Nabokov or Henry James. These things are all true. They are also all fictions and obvious short cuts.

I haven't read enough of Banville to say he measures up to Proust or Nabokov, but damn this book was fine. There really must be something in the water because I'm reading Enright's The Gathering right now and my first thought was 'da feck'? Two Man Bookers by Irish novelists about drowning, death and memory. I'm sure there is more than water and whiskey to this island.

Anyway, I loved and adored 'The Sea'. I used those slick little page-markers everytime I came across a line of Banville's that seemed especially quoteable. I gave up when I ran out of markers. The edge of the book looked like a colorful Stegosaurus with markers dancing up and down the pages.

John Lee, as alwasys, was amazing in this narration. He truely is one of the noble and great narration gods.

* On a side note. It is VERY rare that a writer can actually write about sex without making me want to run from the room. They either make it too clinical (like a doctor popping zits) or too silly (like the cover of a romance novel) or too ethereal (like clouds copulating). Joyce could do it. Nabokov could do it. And I'm proud to say Banville can do it too.

Dark, depressing, realistic but so poetic!

Having a love of Ireland lead me to listen to this book, one of my first audible downloads. While this book has to be described as dark and somewhat depressing, the upside is that the writing is the work of an absolute poet and perfectionist of the English language. Sublime! Regarding the narrator, he is superb. He sounds as if he truly loves the book and each and every character.

I felt tentative about this book at first; the language complex, the story dark. But I encourage readers to stick with it because the past and present are subtely inter-woven, the characters mysterious and interesting, and every question falls neatly into place at the end without the need for any purfunctory happy endings or elevation of character. The story is essentially about life and death and the emotions surrounding them, told by a "man"!

So...if you are interested in literature but written recently, give this awesome book a read. I was very impressed!

Insight, wit and gorgeous prose

If you’re disappointed by books that seem to be recycling ideas, language, and stories you’ve heard somewhere else before, this book will provide much-needed relief.
The prose and creative use of the English language will remind you of Dickens, but the plot is very contemporary. The protagonist’s insights about life, death, and humanity in general, are profound. To top it off, It is read by someone with an Irish accent so thick It immediately whisks you away to the Irish seaside town in which the story takes place. The story is bittersweet verging on sad, but so is life.

Beautifully written Booker Prize Winner

This short and brilliant novel seemed particularly touching as I read It during a pandemic. It’s about death and life with numerous references to great art and literature. I personally enjoyed using both a paperback book and the audiobook together.. John Lee's narration was excellent as always.

Listening to this leaves a bad taste in my mouth

Being a national best seller is nothing to sneeze at, and winning a Man Booker prize is a fairly substantial feat. With both these things in mind I purchased "The Sea". After the purchase, I still am of the opinion that the book has very noteworthy accomplishments, particularly so considering the fact that this book is really just so BAD. I could never find the motivation to care about what the main character experienced, expressed, or suffered; my only concern was that remaining in the company of this intolerable piece of work was causing more suffering on MY part. As far as the audio experience, let me estalish that anyone using this website knows the value of the audio media. "The Sea", then, stands as an excellent example it's failure. (Can I get an "OMG"?) I appreciate the attempt at colloquialisms and accents on the part of the narrator, but I heard enough "pitrs" and "figrs" to call a speech therapist. My advise is to pass this one by. Ignore the fancy packaging. You can't judge this book by its cover.