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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.

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