Max Morden,
who has just lost her wife, came to a small town where he used to go for summer
holiday with his parent when he was a child. In his mourning, Max decided to
retrace his memories during the past fifty years, in his effort to get through
his grief. This story is half a journal and half a stream of consciousness,
written as a beautiful prose. Running simultaneously, Banville takes us to
follow three phases of Max’s life: his teenage memories with Grace family; his
life with his wife Anna—especially around her illness and her death; and his
present visit to Cedars cottage—where the Graces used to stay during summer
holidays.
Max came
from a poor family, and during summer they often stayed in a small summer house
in Ballyless. Being poor, the 11 years old Max was always fascinated to
middle-class lifestyle; he liked to watch how the riches spent their holidays in
the beautiful cottages, one of them was Cedars cottage. Here he got acquainted
with the Graces. He became their intimate friend, and more and more involved
in their lives, that the memories stuck forever in him.
The second
phase of Max’s life was when his wife Anna was diagnosed for a deadly disease.
Max was bewildered, and from then on, until Anna’s death, seemed to be in some
kind of hallucination.
The third
phase is the present time, when Max, to cure his grief, decided to return to
Ballyless, and particularly to the Cedars cottage, which remained a memorable
place for him. The cottage was now managed by a Miss Vavasour, who seemed to be
pleased to receive Max.
All these
three phases jumbled together in Max’s memory, and he told each of it randomly
as some events would remind him to some other events. It looks like confusing pieces
of a puzzle, and the more we approach the end, the puzzle begins to show its
vague shape. And at the end, every mystery would be revealed, and then….the
puzzle would be completed, and you will know the whole mysteries; and only then
that you can really see inside Max’s deepest soul.
The Sea should be read as literary work;
it’s not at all entertaining—except for the beautiful description of the town
and the sea—and so, if you read it as merely fiction, you will be disappointed.
I can see why Banville won the 2005 Man Booker Prize for this book, as his
prose is very deep and intent. I was often amazed at how Max could remember
small details from his childhood memories. But I think, it is because he himself
captured those moments deep in his soul with his own amazement; that it stayed
safely there to be retrieved later, when he needs something to fill or to
replace the hollowness left by Anna. When you want to capture a golden moment
of your life, just turn on all your senses on your surroundings; the sensation
itself would remind you of most of the whole moment later on.
I must
admit, that although this is a beautiful prose, I could not enjoy it as I have
expected. While I expected a more touching story about a widower’s grief, what
I got was a story of a group of problematic people; while I thought it would
offer beauty, what I found was uncomfortable scenes. So, at the end, I think three
and a half stars were more than decent for The
Sea (maybe 21st literary is just not for me anyway…).
~~~~~~~~
I read Indonesian translated edition by Bentang Pustaka
*This book is counted as:*
6th book for Baca Bareng BBI – Oktober theme: Man
Booker Prize
