Ancient Light

By: John Banville

Narrated by: Robin Sachs

The Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea gives us a brilliant, profoundly moving new novel about an actor in the twilight of his life and his career: a meditation on love and loss, and on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives.

Is there any difference between memory and invention? That is the question that fuels this stunning novel, written with the depth of character, the clarifying lyricism and the sly humor that have marked all of John Banville’s extraordinary works. And it is the question that haunts Alexander Cleave, an actor in the twilight of his career and of his life, as he plumbs the memories of his first—and perhaps only—love (he, fifteen years old, the woman more than twice his age, the mother of his best friend; the situation impossible, thrilling, devouring and finally devastating) . . . and of his daughter, lost to a kind of madness of mind and heart that Cleave can only fail to understand. When his dormant acting career is suddenly, inexplicably revived with a movie role portraying a man who may not be who he says he is, his young leading lady—famous and fragile—unwittingly gives him the opportunity to see with aching clarity the “chasm that yawns between the doing of a thing and the recollection of what was done.”

Ancient Light is a profoundly moving meditation on love and loss, on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives, on how invention shapes memory and memory shapes the man. It is a book of spellbinding power and pathos from one of the greatest masters of prose at work today.

Gorgeous!

Robin Sachs is one of those few who can read the phone book and be captivating. And when he reads Banville's rich and graceful prose it's just the best. The story flows seamlessly from past to present to past again. Each character is developed just fully enough to make the book sing; nothing extra. The physical descriptions of places and persons are vivid and convey the sight, sound and smell of them. I will surely come back to this book.

Banville at his best

Would you listen to Ancient Light again? Why?

No. I never reread a book.

What did you like best about this story?

Banvilles prose.

What about Robin Sachs’s performance did you like?

Captures to essence of Banville.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Any additional comments?

I consider John Banville/Benjamin Black to be one of the great contemporary writers. His characters and character descriptions are so detailed and convincing that the reader can picture and get to know the person. His stories are always interesting and often end with an unexpected twist.

Excellent pride, annoying reader performance

The writing is exquisite, as expected from Banville. The story of an inappropriate relationship between a mature woman and a teen is disturbing rather than nostalgic. But the slightly robotic, dry delivery of the reader is annoying beyond measure. Disappointing.

Good book, but fell into a pit of verbosity

John Banville is really good. The story is captivating, but he gets lost in detail and digression more often than not.
Full disclosure I didn't finish the book. And that's the thing: even when I'm not in love with a title, I tend do always finish it. This time I just couldn't. It's not terrible, it's a solid title written by a competent author in a way that is not for me.

The writing, but…

Love Banville but this was so detailed it became absurd and… distractedly self involved? Repetitive, meandering, to me it just needed a serious edit.