“One of the oddest aspects of the novel is the
peculiar contract that it forges — how wonderfully ambiguous is the English
language — between itself and the reader. Why are they believed, these
cunningly fashioned lies? Sancho Panza, Emma Bovary, Leopold Bloom, these
artefacts, conjured out of words, can seem more real to us than the person
sitting opposite us at the breakfast table. What could be stranger? We are all
children, longing for a story at bedtime, happy to suspend our disbelief for
the sake of the fun.”— Irish novelist-memoirist John Banville, “Where Great
Novels Come From,”
The Financial Times, Sept. 2-3, 2023
Photo of John Banville taken May 10, 2019, by Jindrich Nosek (NoJin).
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