Tuesday, May 18, 2010

CHRISTINE FALLS




Christine Falls, Benjamin Black, Henry Holt and Company, 2006, 340 pp


 In his first mystery, Benjamin Black (pen name for literary author John Banville) introduces Quirke, a pathologist in 1950s Dublin who falls into a mysterious circumstance and unwittingly becomes an amateur investigator. Quirke is an orphan, a heavy drinker, a loner. The weather is gray and rainy. His adoptive family has dirty secrets, involving pregnant women, babies, paternity and the Catholic Church. It is all very Irish, dark and hopeless.

 I love dark and hopeless Irish stories but I didn't love this one. I may change my mind later but I felt that Banville/Black went slumming and his literary habits are too strong for him to really tear it up in crime fiction. Of course, I am at this point just being opinionated because I have never read a John Banville novel. He is lauded, wins prizes; readers I respect heap him with praise. Graham Greene successfully alternated between what he called serious fiction and "entertainments" and was brilliant in both. Banville/Black has not convinced me. He is no Graham Greene.

 Now that I have that out of the way, I can say that I read Christine Falls quickly, was engaged on every page and found the twists and turns surprising and gripping. I even had a soft spot for Quirke by the end. I suppose I should read at least one of his John Banville novels. If you have, please let me know.


(Christine Falls is available in paperback on the mystery shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

No comments:

Post a Comment