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mattstebbins's review against another edition
5.0
if ever i was going to write the novel of my dreams, this was that novel. and my version never had a hope or prayer of being this good. banville's a knack for haunting and metaphysical, and i love each passage more with each re-reading.
mxn's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
thepentheimk's review against another edition
This is all style, no substance, and the style certainly isn't enough to save it.
mslaura's review against another edition
2.0
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 4
Plot: 2
Characters: 2
Emotional impact: 2
Overall rating: 2.5
Notes
Favorite character(s):
Favorite quotes: "...the wind of something that was almost happiness wafted through them all." p.7
"He had a disjointed, improvised air, as if he had been put together in haste from disparate bits and pieces of other people." p.12
"...fear always holds at its throbbing centre that little, thin, unquenchable flame of pleasure." p.114
Other notes: I was really impressed by this book initially. I loved the author's way of describing the characters and setting and was intrigued by the premise. As the book progressed, though, the plot began to feel very disjointed to me and I could never quite get a hold of it somehow.
Writing: 4
Plot: 2
Characters: 2
Emotional impact: 2
Overall rating: 2.5
Notes
Favorite character(s):
Favorite quotes: "...the wind of something that was almost happiness wafted through them all." p.7
"He had a disjointed, improvised air, as if he had been put together in haste from disparate bits and pieces of other people." p.12
"...fear always holds at its throbbing centre that little, thin, unquenchable flame of pleasure." p.114
Other notes: I was really impressed by this book initially. I loved the author's way of describing the characters and setting and was intrigued by the premise. As the book progressed, though, the plot began to feel very disjointed to me and I could never quite get a hold of it somehow.
laurenbdavis's review against another edition
4.0
A book concerned with language more than plot, with a nod to "The Tempest". Banville's a master of anguish.
blackoxford's review against another edition
3.0
Cosmic Intersections
The world isn’t what goes around inside our heads, but what our heads go around inside. Context is contents. And I don’t mean air, sights, and smells as context. I mean other heads. It is these other heads that supply us with language, opinion, and prejudice, lots of prejudice, which are the elements of the world we inhabit. These other heads are even embedded in the things that surround us - like in a simple cup of tea: “Lives, other lives! a myriad of them, distilled into this thimbleful of perfumed pleasure.”
Trying to clarify what goes on inside our heads by isolating ourselves - on a small, sparsely populated Irish island for example - is, therefore, not an inherently irrational therapeutic idea - in principle. We then only have to cope mostly with memories (supplied of course by others), and dreams of other heads in other places. But what happens when more new heads, or even an old one, start invading? And what happens to the invaders’ heads? “Here is the moment where worlds collide... Worlds within worlds. They bleed into each other.” Hanging around crazy people will make you crazy.
But here’s the thing: it’s not possible to sort our own head without another one to help, who nonetheless is unwelcome because annoying, and possibly crazy. We need another head to be inserted into our own to remember our crimes; or more generally to interrupt our thinking lest we enter an endless loop of memories, dreams, and regrets. When these helpful others are absent or when they die, it’s not enough to live on mere memories. These heads become ghosts - part of ourselves, yet also independent. “I am certain there is no other form of afterlife for them than this, that they should live in us, and through us. It is our duty.”
Ghosts have a clear function. The law calls this function restitution; psychiatric medicine calls it integration; art crticism, verification. They amount to the sane thing: sorting the contents of one’s head, that is to say the context of one’s head. Never an easy job; rarely a faultless one. But when they do their job, ghosts have a dramatic effect. They make it clear “that something had happened, that something had shifted, that things would never be again as they had been before.” This is about as close to solving the various mysteries Banville presents as one is likely to achieve.
And, as usual, Banville also presents the reader with his unique taste in vocabulary. Borborygmic, oneiric, brumous, mephitic, eructations, benison, plumbeous, tombal, balneation are new to me. But these are mysteries which are easier to resolve.
The world isn’t what goes around inside our heads, but what our heads go around inside. Context is contents. And I don’t mean air, sights, and smells as context. I mean other heads. It is these other heads that supply us with language, opinion, and prejudice, lots of prejudice, which are the elements of the world we inhabit. These other heads are even embedded in the things that surround us - like in a simple cup of tea: “Lives, other lives! a myriad of them, distilled into this thimbleful of perfumed pleasure.”
Trying to clarify what goes on inside our heads by isolating ourselves - on a small, sparsely populated Irish island for example - is, therefore, not an inherently irrational therapeutic idea - in principle. We then only have to cope mostly with memories (supplied of course by others), and dreams of other heads in other places. But what happens when more new heads, or even an old one, start invading? And what happens to the invaders’ heads? “Here is the moment where worlds collide... Worlds within worlds. They bleed into each other.” Hanging around crazy people will make you crazy.
But here’s the thing: it’s not possible to sort our own head without another one to help, who nonetheless is unwelcome because annoying, and possibly crazy. We need another head to be inserted into our own to remember our crimes; or more generally to interrupt our thinking lest we enter an endless loop of memories, dreams, and regrets. When these helpful others are absent or when they die, it’s not enough to live on mere memories. These heads become ghosts - part of ourselves, yet also independent. “I am certain there is no other form of afterlife for them than this, that they should live in us, and through us. It is our duty.”
Ghosts have a clear function. The law calls this function restitution; psychiatric medicine calls it integration; art crticism, verification. They amount to the sane thing: sorting the contents of one’s head, that is to say the context of one’s head. Never an easy job; rarely a faultless one. But when they do their job, ghosts have a dramatic effect. They make it clear “that something had happened, that something had shifted, that things would never be again as they had been before.” This is about as close to solving the various mysteries Banville presents as one is likely to achieve.
And, as usual, Banville also presents the reader with his unique taste in vocabulary. Borborygmic, oneiric, brumous, mephitic, eructations, benison, plumbeous, tombal, balneation are new to me. But these are mysteries which are easier to resolve.
dobeesquared's review against another edition
4.0
Not a fast read for me, but a good one. The very fantasy and very real merge perfectly here. Would be 5 stars for me, but for the ending....
oakleighirish's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Ghosts is a beautiful novel - elegant, erudite, refined and egregiously verbose. You feels like it's all of a bit of cod (Irish vernacular..) - that Ghosts is sometimes an arty thought experiment. You have this juxtaposition between the rich language and base motives of the erstwhile criminal, shady visitors and dyspeptic residents...
shimmer's review against another edition
3.0
As much as I'm a fan of Banville, this one didn't do much for me, I'm afraid. It seemed like it kept introducing new elements, and new characters, only to abandon them by the wayside to focus elsewhere. I think that kept the novel from coming together into a cohesive whole for me.
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