Has he walked into it for so long as to not be able to understand the world around him? Has he truly wanted to? It is often easier to let go of the truth, dispose of it like of unnecessary, heavy and unattractive object and create another version of it, "new reality" She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world--the world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her first steps in the art of fiction." (John Bayley in Elegy for Iris, 1998) The story is narrated by Max, a retired art critic, who is mourning the death of his wife, Anna, and now living at The Cedars, which he remembers from his youth. Whether recalling those days when he lived with his family in more modest surroundings and gawked eagerly into the house and its inhabitants, the Graces. Ah, the sea - especially the smell of the sea, a phrase as familiar as the idea that aromas have a visceral power to exhume memories we didn’t know we had ever had and lost.

He spends his time writing a memoir that is a kind of diary and autobiography mixed in with copies of letters he sent or received; basically that is this book. Of course, we can’t trust this unreliable narrator; even he tells us his letters are “partly disingenuous, partly sincere.” Now Clement, who he actually talks the least about of all his lovers seems to be the woman that made him into the successful man he is today.But Murdoch's writing is too good to ignore and here she conjures up a philosophical tour de force with a heterogeneous cast contrived to cover all bases. And she even throws in a few unexpected surprises for good measure! These days I must take the world in small and carefully measured doses, it is a sort of homeopathic cure… Perhaps I am learning to live amongst the living again… But no, that’s not it. Being here is just a way of not being anywhere.” Smell and taste are interdependent. Unlike the other senses, it’s almost impossible to describe them except in comparison with other smells and tastes - hence wines with undertones of apricot, accents of peat, and aftertaste of daisies. I think it’s also why it's so difficult to remember, let alone imagine smells at will. One's mind's eye and ear are so much more biddable. Even touch is easier to recall and describe. Banville prompted me to to try, though.

The answer doesn’t come, as is usually the case with such existential questions, but a throng of uninvited guests show up instead. A Buddhist cousin, a vitriolic ex lover, another ex, decidedly more doting, an old buddy with enough grudges to kill a friendship, an actor dying to serve his old master and commander, even a teenage boy eager to play the role of the son that never was. Most surprisingly of all, his first love, a woman from his distant past, turns up living a few doors up the hill. His isolation goes out the window but the irresistible prospect of reviving the purity of his long-lost youth rushes in, if only in his mind alone. It turns out that the woman (a rather dull creature compared to all the other colorful characters) doesn’t want to play the role of the resuscitator. Featuring fascinating, fishy fun facts accompanied by bright, bold, and beautiful illustrations, this book takes children on a journey through the sea and all its zones. For lunch, I may say, I ate and greatly enjoyed the following: anchovy paste on hot buttered toast, then baked beans and kidney beans with chopped celery, tomatoes, lemon juice, and olive oil. (really good olive oil is essential..." (this goes on for another 15 lines) The Sea is a story of a lonely man adrift in the sea of grief and trying to reevaluate the past and to reconcile himself to the present. It would suit all ages... a great amount of information that my daughter and I enjoyed reading together. A must for any children with an interest in the sea" Toppsta

This charming celebration of the sea shows children how extraordinary our oceans are and is a reminder that it is up to us to keep it that way - shortlisted for Best Children's Book 5+ category in the Junior Design Awards 2019. There are more than 33,000 types of fish. Some fish can fly, some can dance, some are flat, and some are long. The sea has forests, ice, and exciting critters too. This adorable kid's book is the perfect meet-cute for kids and our beautiful oceans.

Banville’s prose, perfectly fitting in with the gray and cold ubiquity of the sea, is elegiac and poetic. And concluding paragraph is profoundly purifying. Max, il protagonista io narrante, ha da poco superato i sessanta, da dodici mesi seppellito la moglie Anna, ha una figlia, Claire, alle cui telefonate preferisce non rispondere per concentrarsi meglio sul suo lutto. Still that day of license and illicit invitation was not done. As Mrs. Grace, stretched there on the grassy bank, continued softly snoring, a torpor descended on the rest of us in that little dell, the invisible net of lassitude that falls over a company when one of its number detaches and drops away into sleep. ... Suddenly she was the centre of the scene, the vanishing-point upon which everything converged, suddenly it was she for whom these patterns and these shades had been arranged with such meticulous artlessness: that white cloth on the polished glass, the leaning, blue-green tree, the frilled ferns, even those little clouds, trying to seem not to move, high up in the limitless marine sky.Yet, he discovers that silence has been his companion his whole life. He knows and understands it like he has never known and understood anybody, including himself. Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor both professionally and personally, and to amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors--some real, some spectral--that disrupt his world and shake his oversized ego to its very core. And I loved the wilful ridiculousness of it all. The author must have had a great deal of fun purposely amalgamating farce and improbability with high culture.

I wish to thank my wonderful friend Seemita, who is truly an amazing reviewer, for inspiring me to read this book. To be concealed, protected, guarded, that is all I have ever truly wanted, to burrow down into a place of womby warmth, and cower there, hidden from the sky's indifferent gaze and the harsh air's damagings." Our minds, our pasts, are territories we explore, yet, there is so much that is left unexplored. What do they eagerly whisper to us? What song do they sing to us? What is revealed, what is left concealed? Are we ready to take that chance? Are we ready to immerse into the depths of the dark and mysterious past, are we ready to face the cold and painful present, do we dare hope for the obscure future? Who are we, what stories do we have to tell, and to whom do we tell them? Sometimes silence is the only one that listens. Sometimes that’s enough. And sometimes it is not. ”There is a special quality to the silence at night”Felt a little depressed but was cheered up by supper: spaghetti with a little butter and dried basil. (Basil is of course the king of herbs.) Then spring cabbage cooked slowly with dill. Boiled onions served with bran, herbs, soya oil and tomatoes, with one egg beaten in. With these, a slice or two of cold tinned corned beef. (Meat is really just an excuse for eating vegetables.)” Ever the director, Arrowby keeps casting himself and the people that surround him as if they were characters in one of his plays. The casting agrees with his desires but not necessarily with those of the others. Life is and is not a stage. We so want to believe that we can control it, that we can play the part of the director in our tragicomedies. The truth is that there are many players involved and they all have their own scripts in mind. Our hero spends the entire novel trying to reconcile himself to the idea. Does he? In his own words: Multiple Stranded at Sea-Themed Author Signature Book Plates // Autograph Books // Bookplates // Book memorabilia // Ocean, Sails, Island This is an intensely sensual book, but not in the usual sense. It’s about the power of one of the senses, smell, in the context of bereaved reminiscence. Max frequently mentions the smell of things. Not all are pleasant, but they colour his memories in a profound way.