Singularities - John Banville Kartoniert (TB)

Dieses Buch ist absolut faszinierend und hat mich sofort in die Welt dieser mysteriösen Geschichte gezogen; die Handlung ist packend und die Charaktere sind wunderbar entwickelt.

Interessant!

…. where nothing much happens. At the beginning Felix Mordaunt, a convict sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and released on parole after 25 Years travels to the English country site and a mansion where he lived as a young boy. He remembers the estate as Coolgrange, whereas the current owners - the Godley family - know the place only as Arden House, a name it has had for generations. Arden House is the home to the late world-famous scientist Adam Godley senior the father of the Brahman theory or theorem, which as some kind of world formula makes all research in physics and a few other sciences obsolete. The novel develops along the lines of an Ibsen-like 3-act play. We are introduced to a handful of characters among them Adam Godley junior, who appoints an obscure academic to write the ultimate biography of his father. Then there are Adam Godley’s, mother, his wife Helen and the housekeeper Ivy Blount, the cowman Duffy and 2 characters linked to the shady Mordaunt and a few others. That’s about it. We follow them for a few days or weeks in and around Arden House. The obscure biographer falls head over heels in love with his hostess Helen. We learn a bit about the not-so nice character of Godley senior, hi scientific discoveries as well as his love life as an old man, reminiscent to Mann’s Death in Venice. In the end there is a party on Helen’s 40th birthday and an additional a much sadder anniversary. Here Mordaunt pilfers a few valuables form the house and its inhabitants and disappears into the summer evening and the low undulating country site. The last lines and the actual full stop at the novel’s end come from the author Banville himself. This seems to be in line with the whole set-up of the novel as Banville comments on his invented characters and their actions on a few occasions during the novel as an off-line voice addressing the reader directly. All in all, worthwhile reading but not more than 3 stars.