Eclipse - Softcover
Alexander Cleave, has left his career and his family behind and banished himself to his childhood home. He wants to retire from life, but finds this impossible in a house brimming with presences, some ghostly, some undeniably human. Memories, anxiety for his beloved but troubled daughter, all conspire to distract him from his dreaming retirement.
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From the Inside Flap:
In this deeply moving and original book, John Banville alloys mystery, fable, and ghost story with poignant psychological acuity to forge the riveting story of a man wary of the future, plagued by the past, and so uncertain in the present that he cannot discern the spectral from the real.
When renowned actor Alexander Cleave was a boy living in a large house with his widowed mother and various itinerant lodgers, he encountered a strikingly vivid ghost of his father. Now that he's fifty and has returned to his boyhood home to recover from a nervous breakdown on stage, he is not surprised to find the place still haunted. He is surprised, however, at the presence of two new lodgers who have covertly settled into his old roost. And he is soon overwhelmed by how they, coupled with an onslaught of disturbing memories, compel him to confront the clutter that has become his life: ruined career, tenuous marriage, and troubled relationship with an estranged daughter destined for doom."
From the Back Cover:
When renowned actor Alexander Cleave was a boy living in a large house with his widowed mother and various itinerant lodgers, he encountered a strikingly vivid ghost of his father. Now that he's fifty and has returned to his boyhood home to recover from a nervous breakdown on stage, he is not surprised to find the place still haunted. He is surprised, however, at the presence of two new lodgers who have covertly settled into his old roost. And he is soon overwhelmed by how they, coupled with an onslaught of disturbing memories, compel him to confront the clutter that has become his life: ruined career, tenuous marriage, and troubled relationship with an estranged daughter destined for doom."
“Like Nabokov, Banville captures the vivid aesthetic pleasures of quotidian reality in the most satisfying ways.” –The New York Times Book Review
“An impressive, effective novel, bracing as a nightmare.”–Chicago Tribune
“Mr. Banville is that rare writer who can pack all five senses into a declarative sentence.”–The Wall Street Journal
“[Eclipse] captures in its pages a felt life so dense, so swift in its paranoid momentum, that the whole idea of the novel as a window to the self seems viable again.... This is as true as things ever get.”–Sven Birkerts, Esquire
“[Banville] has an uncanny ability to pinpoint and record sensations rarely brought to consciousness. . . . Eclipse wakes us up to things we should have noticed.” –San Francisco Chronicle
“An impressive, effective novel, bracing as a nightmare.”–Chicago Tribune
“Mr. Banville is that rare writer who can pack all five senses into a declarative sentence.”–The Wall Street Journal
“[Eclipse] captures in its pages a felt life so dense, so swift in its paranoid momentum, that the whole idea of the novel as a window to the self seems viable again.... This is as true as things ever get.”–Sven Birkerts, Esquire
“[Banville] has an uncanny ability to pinpoint and record sensations rarely brought to consciousness. . . . Eclipse wakes us up to things we should have noticed.” –San Francisco Chronicle
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- PublisherPan MacMillan
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 033048222X
- ISBN 13 9780330482226
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number4
- Number of pages300
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Eclipse [Soft Cover ]
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Pan MacMillan
(2001)
ISBN 10: 033048222X
ISBN 13: 9780330482226
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Eclipse (Paperback)
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A lyrical and haunting new work of fiction by one of Ireland's greatest writers.Alexander Cleave has never been able to rid himself of the feeling that he is in "a perpetual state of being watched"-even when alone. So he became an actor, and successfully performed his way through life until suddenly, at the peak of his career, he staggered off stage, never to return.Self-banished to his childhood home and cut off from his wife, Cleave begins to unravel the past and disinter his own identity. But his attempt to sift the accumulated clutter of half a century of existence is undermined by the house itself, brimming with lives, both ghostly and undeniably human. Memory constantly displaces Cleave's attention to the small, delicate details of the present. So too does his anxiety about the future, and the thought of his beloved but troubled daughter, Cass, tugging away at him like an undertow.This humane and beautifully written story tells the tragic tale of a man, intelligent, preposterous and vulnerable, who in attempting to bring the performance to a close, finds himself travelling inevitably towards a devastating denouement. A captivating, melancholy ghost story that will captivate every discerning reader. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780330482226
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Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780330482226
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 224 pages. 7.64x5.12x0.79 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __033048222X
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. A captivating, melancholy ghost story will captivate every discerning reader. Seller Inventory # B9780330482226
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Book Description Condition: New. A captivating, melancholy ghost story will captivate every discerning reader. Num Pages: 300 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 130 x 15. Weight in Grams: 188. 214pp. 2010. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # 9780330482226
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Book Description Condition: New. A captivating, melancholy ghost story will captivate every discerning reader. Num Pages: 300 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 130 x 15. Weight in Grams: 188. 214pp. 2010. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # 9780330482226
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