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Alan Bray
- Aug 26, 2021
- 4 min
To Whom Am I Speaking?
A central question (not the only one) in The Sea is to whom is the narrator, Max, addressing his narration? Max’s narrative has the feel...
Alan Bray
- Aug 19, 2021
- 3 min
A Journey of Surpassing but Inexplicable Importance
The premise of The Sea is that, after the death of his wife, a man is grieving, trying to go on but struggling, not only with the loss,...
Alan Bray
- Aug 12, 2021
- 4 min
The Sea
This week, a new novel: John Banville’s The Sea, published in 2005 and the winner of that year’s Man Booker Prize. It begins: “They...
Alan Bray
- Aug 5, 2021
- 4 min
Synergy
One of the ways Olive K. is novel-like is the development throughout the book of the main character, Olive Kitteridge. The first chapter,...
Alan Bray
- Jul 29, 2021
- 4 min
Where or When?
Is Olive K. a dis-continuous narrative in the manner of such modernist works as Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury? So says the Wikipedia...
Alan Bray
- Jul 22, 2021
- 6 min
Overcoming Stage Fright
‘Kay. A long post today, so let’s begin. No interruptions, please, we can take questions at the end. Last week, we considered the concept...
Alan Bray
- Jul 15, 2021
- 4 min
Willy Wonty
The fifth story in Olive, “Starving” begins: “At the marina on Saturday morning, Harmon had to work not to stare at the young couple.”...
Alan Bray
- Jul 8, 2021
- 4 min
The Elephant in the Room
First, a personal note. For the first time in some sixty weeks, my blog did not have a new entry last Thursday. Readers were, I know,...
Alan Bray
- Jun 24, 2021
- 5 min
Olive Kitteridge
This week, a new book, Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, published in 2008. Ms. Strout won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for...
Alan Bray
- Jun 17, 2021
- 4 min
Camera Obscura
I have said that, in Emigrants, Max Sebald relied for content on the stories of real people, including an unnamed narrator who was...
Alan Bray
- Jun 10, 2021
- 4 min
Laugh or Cry—Your Choice?
The last section in Emigrants is entitled Max Ferber. Here, our narrator is a youth in his early twenties who escapes life in Germany...
Alan Bray
- Jun 3, 2021
- 4 min
Memory Lane
The third section of Emigrants, Ambros Adelwarth, is all about revenants, people who return, people who are thought of as dead but come...
Alan Bray
- May 27, 2021
- 4 min
Hall of Mirrors
Last week, I wrote about how Emigrants can be seen as the story of a narrator’s reactions to encounters with four different people—except...
Alan Bray
- May 20, 2021
- 4 min
Make It Real Compared to What
A theme I’d like to pursue in thinking about this remarkable book, is that Emigrants is (among other things) about the effect on the...
Alan Bray
- May 13, 2021
- 4 min
Fiction and Other Facts
In Amazon’s system of classification, Emigrants is found under literature and biography, and the promotion says the book combines...
Alan Bray
- May 6, 2021
- 4 min
The Emigrants
This week, a new story, The Emigrants by the late German author W.G. Sebald. I’m reading Michael Hulse’s 1996 translation of the 1992...
Alan Bray
- May 1, 2021
- 1 min
"Pequod" Anchors In Blue Lake
I'm pleased to announce my story "The Loss of the Whaling Ship Pequod" is now live on the Blue Lake Review site. Here's a link:...
Alan Bray
- Apr 29, 2021
- 6 min
Time Travel
The last chapter of Remains is entitled Weymouth. It begins with Mr. Stevens sitting on a pier, or boardwalk, by the sea, waiting for the...
Alan Bray
- Apr 22, 2021
- 4 min
Mr. Stevens and St. Peter
Although Mr. Stevens spends considerable time reflecting on the past during his journey, he is at times confronted by people from the...
Alan Bray
- Apr 15, 2021
- 4 min
Stevens the Obscure
Remains has an interesting structure. As I have said, the novel is broken up into a prologue and seven chapters, each one identified by a...