The Infinities is my first John Banville read and I have to say that I am intrigued.
The book takes place over the course of one day. The Godley family have come together after the father, husband and patriarch of the family, Adam Senior, has suffered a massive stroke and has been brought home to die amongst his loved ones, his second wife Ursula and their two children, Petra and Adam Jnr and Adam's wife, Helen. The twist to the novel is that is narrated by the mythical Greek god, Hermes - clearly the funniest character in the book for me. Hermes introduces the reader to each of the human, mortal characters and in doing so also shows us how the gods intervene in the family life and the course of events of that single day.
I would normally struggle with a book set up with this premise but I jumped right into this novel with no problems at all - the way Banville constructed the world of the gods and the world of the humans and the way the two intersected so seamlessly made the reading, in that regard at least, easy for me. I did find Banville's writing extremely 'literary' in places and many times a word had me reaching for the dictionary (I admit I got a bit lazy in the end and just kept reading on when a word had me stumped) but this didn't detract from the story or the characters for me. As I mentioned earlier this book contained a lot of humour, particularly in the scenes where the gods were involved, and there were also some beautiful phrases and snippets - my favourite would have to be this description; 'the lemony sunlight of the Italian noon'.
Overall an enjoyable and reflective read for me. Do you think I would enjoy any of Banville's other novels?
