Forum Views ()
Forum Replies ()
Read more with google mobile :
Writer Banville enjoys new lease on life as Black
|
Edition:
U.S.
Article
Comments (0)
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
Obama warns on debt, deal elusive after talks
|
1:17am EDT
California woman accused of slicing off husband's penis
12 Jul 2011
Amazon seeks ballot measure to undo California tax
12 Jul 2011
Singer Jewel gives birth to a boy
|
12 Jul 2011
Democrats win early victory in Wisconsin recall primary
12:54am EDT
Discussed
115
Obama, lawmakers meet for 75 minutes on debt impasse
96
WRAPUP 1-Taxes still a stumbling block in U.S. debt talks
93
Obama and lawmakers regroup to seek debt deal
Watched
A Tokyo-Paris flight in under three hours on the horizon
Fri, Jun 24 2011
Hefner's revenge; Ryan Reynolds stops traffic
Fri, Jun 17 2011
Schwarzenegger to start film, Jewel has baby
8:39am EDT
Writer Banville enjoys new lease on life as Black
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
"Deathly Hallows" not the end for true Potter fans
Tue, Jul 5 2011
Book Talk: Fresh mayhem in chilly Stockholm
Thu, Jun 30 2011
Author James Patterson eyes movies, kids reading
Wed, Jun 29 2011
Ex-media mogul Conrad Black sent back to prison
Fri, Jun 24 2011
Expletive-laced kids book parody is unlikely hit
Mon, Jun 13 2011
Analysis & Opinion
Top 7 moonlighting businesses
Dispatches from the new news landscape, Univision edition
Related Topics
Entertainment »
Fashion »
People »
Booker prize winning author John Banville talks during an interview with Reuters in New York November 8, 2005.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
By Mark Egan
NEW YORK |
Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:04pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Irish author John Banville has been lauded as one of the greatest literary stylists of his generation but his recent kick as a crime writer, churning out a murder mystery every year, has him giddy with excitement.
"I am in my 60s with a new lease on life. It's fun," Banville said in an interview to promote "A Death in Summer," written under Banville's pen name Benjamin Black and published in the United States on Tuesday.
The book finds dour, bumbling pathologist Garret Quirke trying to get to the bottom of the apparent suicide of a Dublin newspaper owner. Banville tells readers, only partly in jest, to expect an "absolute masterpiece of crime fiction."
The story unfolds in 1950s Dublin, the time of Banville's childhood when he thought the Irish capital was an exotic place -- a setting he says he is still transported to in his mind every time he smells the whiff of diesel from a passing bus.
In his latest page-turner -- the fifth book written under the Black name in as many years -- Quirke's assistant David Sinclair has an affair with his daughter Phoebe.
"There is a childish pleasure in it. It's like playing with toy soldiers," he said. "When I wake at four in the morning, instead of thinking about death, or sex, or my bank balance, I think, 'What will I do with Phoebe or Sinclair?'
"I am making up stories," Banville said. "This is the great pleasure of writing .... It's the making of yarns, which I was never interested in before."
Banville makes it sound like childish fun, but critics are smitten. Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times that "his Black persona has been such a success that he looks increasingly like the Superman to Mr. Banville's more literary Clark Kent."
LITERARY DOUBLE LIFE
Explaining the difference between Banville's finely crafted fiction such as "The Book of Evidence" or the Man Booker Prize-winner "The Sea" and his work as Black, Banville speaks in the third person and calls Banville an artist and Black a craftsman.
"Black was able to help Banville," he said over breakfast at the Knickerbocker Club on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, explaining that the Banville novel he just completed, "Ancient Light," was improved by his crime fiction.
"Black has got used to doing plots and keeping all that balanced, and Banville has learned some of that from him," he said.
In "Ancient Light," he revisits his novels "Eclipse" and "Shroud." Narrator Alexander Cleave thinks about the suicide of his daughter Cass and a sexual affair he had as a teenager with a friend's mother in a small Irish town.
As Banville, he said, he writes with a fountain pen at a pace of a few hundred words each day, while as Black, he churns out more than a thousand words daily on a computer.
As Black, Banville now has the unusual pleasure of outselling his own Banville books in some countries.
"This is partly why I started being Black -- to give Banville a day job," he said.
Banville said he is turned off by graphic depictions of violence both in crime novels and in Hollywood movies. He derides the hugely popular Stieg Larsson novels as crude stories "written with the blunt end of a burned stick."
Black's leading man Quirke will soon be on television, thanks to a planned series by the BBC of three 90-minute mysteries. And, Banville said, he is planning more crime books until he can conjure some redemption for Quirke.
"If I get to a point, five, six, seven books from now ... where Quirke is in some way redeemed, then I will probably stop," he said.
Meanwhile, he will keep eking out his Banville books in the hope of writing what he is striving for -- the perfect novel.
"My books are better than anybody else's. They are just not good enough for me," he said. "What any writer is after is perfection, but that is not available.
"I will never achieve perfection, so I will keep on and on and on and I will die with a pen in my hand and I will feel as I am dying, 'Now, maybe, I will go to a place where I can write the perfect one,'" he said, adding, "Fat chance!"
Entertainment
Fashion
People
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment on reuters.com.
Add yours using the box above.
Social Stream (What's this?)
© Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters
Editorial Editions:
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
United States
Reuters
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Help
Journalism Handbook
Archive
Site Index
Video Index
Reader Feedback
Mobile
Newsletters
RSS
Podcasts
Widgets
Your View
Analyst Research
Thomson Reuters
Copyright
Disclaimer
Privacy
Professional Products
Professional Products Support
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
Careers
Online Products
Acquisitions Monthly
Buyouts
Venture Capital Journal
International Financing Review
Project Finance International
PEhub.com
PE Week
FindLaw
Super Lawyers Attorney Rating Service
Reuters on Facebook
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
Other News on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 Angry Egyptians target army, demand change
|
U.N. torture sleuth raps U.S. on access to leaks suspect
|
Amtrak boasting 30 million riders
Open Championship at Royal St. George's could produce another first-time major titlist
Gunmen hit Egyptian gas pipeline for the fourth time since uprising
U.N. to transfer peacekeepers to South Sudan
Blake Shelton's record label bosses wanted to shut down his Twitter
Study finds 140,000 children are victims of identity theft each year
Hackers steal 90,000 e-mail addresses, passwords from military contractors server
UN delegation reaches Mogadishu to assess drought situation
Reporter Jim Gray talks about LeBron's 'Decision' a year later
Malaysia hands over terror suspect to Indonesian authorities
Netflix raises DVD, streaming plan price by 60 percent
|
Google costs in focus after busy quarter
|
A new U.S. law-enforcement tool: Facebook searches
|
Groupon offers first car deal, targets bigger items
|
WikiLeaks' Assange in UK court to fight extradition
|
France makes Liza Minnelli Legion of Honour officer
|
TV producer ordered to Mexico on murder charges
|
Singer Jewel gives birth to a boy
|
Netflix raises DVD, streaming plan price by 60 percent
|
Netflix raises DVD, streaming plan price by 60 pct
|
Afghan president weeps as slain brother is buried
|
Bin Laden was in on 2005 and 2006 London plots
|
WNBA: Penicheiro turns back time, vet nets 18 in Sparks' win vs. Stars
Riots erupt in Nothern Ireland after Protestant marches
|
Rogers Cup Hall of Fame to add three tennis stars; Agassi, Connors and Allaster
Katie Holmes says she's in no pressure for baby #2
"Harry Potter" star Emma Watson admits to being drunk once in her life
Timberwolves finally fire coach Kurt Rambis
Christine Lagarde names two IMF officials
Factional fighting brings Yemen unrest nearer Saudi
|
White House welcomes Republican Senator McConnells latest proposal
China's Jiang rested at home during death rumors: report
|
Moodys downgrades Irish bonds to junk
Mila Kunis accepts leatherneck's invitation to Marine Corp Ball
Death toll in Russian boat disaster reaches 100
|
State Department connects diplomacy abroad with domestic job creation
Israeli forces kill Palestinian in West Bank: medics
|
Mexico court rules soldiers can face civil trials
|
Toshiba, Hynix say to collaborate on MRAM development
|
Electronic Arts buying PopCap Games for up to $1.3 billion
|
RIM deflects criticism at annual meeting
|
Exclusive: China Telecom plans iPhone launch year-end
|
Halle Berry wins stay away order against intruder
|
Bank moves to foreclose on R. Kelly's Chicago mansion
|
TV producer ordered to Mexico on murder charges
|
Writer Banville enjoys new lease on life as Black
|
Grass Roots singer Rob Grill dies at age 67
|
Near simultaneous blasts kill at least 8 in Mumbai
|
Gaddafi troops retake village south of Tripoli
|
Iran prepares for nuclear work in bunker: sources
|
Egypt shakes up police after protests
|
Israel PM defends law against settlement boycott
|
Turkey says EU ties will freeze if no Cyprus solution
|
The 140th Open Championship: for Rory McIlroy, company it's all about the weather
Hugo Chavez: I may need chemotherapy
|
Oprah Winfrey gets new job as CEO of OWN
WikiLeaks' Assange in final day of UK extradition fight
|
Republicans fall short of repealing energy-efficient light bulb law
Ted Danson joins 'CSI' as series regular
Are Palestinians getting cold feet on independence?
Social media in uproar over Netflix price hike
UK unemployment falls to 7.7% while more workers file for jobless benefits
Death of OU football player ruled accident; drugs involved
Middle East becomes cheaper for expatriates
Venting may make you feel worse
Amazon to offer cheaper Kindle, sponsored by AT&T
|
Samsung, HTC, Apple to show Q2 cellphone gains
|
UK spies losing Web experts to private sector: report
|
Social Media: a double-edged sword in Syria
|
SAP seeks to cut $1.3 billion Oracle verdict
|
Fresh blow for Nokia as NSN stake sale abandoned
|
A minute with: Harry Potter director David Yates
|
Oprah Winfrey to become CEO of her network
|
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights