I do not like John Banville

And when I say I don't like him, I mean his novels.  I don't say this lightly, I've given him two chances now -- most recently reading 130 pages of The Infinities. It started out okay, the characters seemed somewhat interesting and even a bit quirky. The themes were developing nicely and I had hope that a plot might appear at some point. Then the gods started arriving, and the damnable expository passages that I dread so much virtually took over the novel.

A while back I tried reading his award winning book -- The Sea -- and didn't get very far. I'm all for beautiful writing, but there has to be something else there -- a story to move the action forward. His books read more like essays than novels, and leave me wanting.

Comments

[Edward Champion]

The problem isn't Banville. It's you. If you're looking for a plot (by no means the driving basis behind a novel), stick with your childish nursery rhymes and leave real literature for the rest of us.