Long novel a love story at its heart
After 54 years and 15 novels, John Irving’s finally done it. He has written a book longer than most editions of “MobyDick.”
It’s difficult to do justice to this book in a short review. Every Irving fan will read it, and even readers trying Irving for the first time will find it an accessible introduction to the New Englandborn novelist whose work has always been stuffed with serious themes like religion, sex and politics, tempered by a fair dose of satire and absurdity, delivered by narrators in an endearing, matter-of-fact prose.
At its heart “The Last Chairlift” is a love story, telling almost the entire life story of its narrator, Adam Brewster, himself a writer growing up in Exeter, New Hampshire, who wrestles, becomes a bestselling novelist, wins an Oscar and earns Canadian citizenship, not unlike Irving himself. But as narrator Adam admits: “Real life is so sloppy — it’s full of coincidences. Things just happen, random things that have no connection to one another. In good fiction, isn’t everything connected to everything else?” In “The Last Chairlift,” Irving tries to do both — tell a fictional story that is chock full of random events, but make it feel like nothing is random at all in hindsight, as Adam relates it all to us.
True to form for an Irving novel, sex is a frequent topic of discussion and driver of the plot. While the narrative tracks Adam’s life, chronologically, it lingers during sexually charged political moments in history.
Oh, and don’t forget the ghosts! The novel begins and ends with a reference to them, and they play all sorts of roles in between. A real-life establishment in Aspen, Colorado, called The Hotel Jerome is haunted by various important figures in Adam’s life, many of which he features in a pair of screenplays he writes that are included in the novel, but which are based on his real life. Screenplay line spacing helps the pages turn faster. It’s not that you want “The Last Chairlift” to end, but you do want to see where all the characters end up after that final ride up the mountain.
— Rob Merrill, Associated Press
John Banville’s novels come and go, but not all of his characters depart with them. In his latest novel, “The Singularities,” the Booker winner brings back diverse characters from disparate books and lets them intermingle.
A “mystery man” calling himself Felix Mordaunt is released from prison after doing 25 years for murder. It becomes clear that he is really Freddie Montgomery, who first showed his face in Banville’s 1989 novel “The Book of Evidence.” Keen to make a new start but also to reconnect with his childhood, he turns up at the door of the Irish country house where he grew up. Felix ingratiates himself with the present owners, the Godleys (from Banville’s 2009 book, “The Infinities”).
The novel expands to take in the occupants of Arden House. There is Helen Godley, a former actor; her husband, Adam, son of the late mathematician Adam Godley; and Godley’s widow, Ursula.
The household also includes a professor called William Jaybey. Adam has commissioned him to write a biography of his father. Unbeknownst to the family, Jaybey detested Godley and plans to settle old scores by dishing dirt and tarnishing his reputation.
Soon Banville’s narrative is thick with all manner of secrets and lies, spying and scheming. Things get murkier when one of Felix’s old flames reveals a death wish. Things turn strange when the characters begin to inhabit alternative realities.
“The Singularities” is Banville at his most inventive. Regular readers of Banville will know not to expect much in the way of plot, and on this occasion, story plays second fiddle to style. His verbal dexterity and poetic flourishes keep us absorbed throughout what is a complex, sometimes maddening yet ultimately rewarding work.