Athena by John Banville
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I began reading Athena, I did not know that it is, in a sense, a continuation of The Book of Evidence and Ghosts. But then I found the name Vaublin in the text, which I first had seen about six years ago, when I reviewed both novels on Goodreads. Then it became obvious that Mr. Morrow, the narrator of Athena, is really Mr. Montgomery. Well, probably... Unreliability of the narrator is on full display here!

Athena is basically a love story expressed in the form of Mr. M's letter to his lover, whose name is only given as A., and whom he is missing much. The love story is intertwined with the plot thread, in which the narrator, who might be an art expert, is used by various shady characters from the underworld to examine the authenticity of several 17th-century paintings. A police inspector is involved too.

I do not think, though, that the plot is important at all. It is the beautiful prose that makes this book. Yes, the prose is often breathtakingly beautiful, yet it is also complex and, in my view, too hermetic. One-hundred-word-long sentences make Athena quite a challenging read. The author seems to make fun of himself: Ah, this plethora of metaphors! I am like everything except myself. On the other hand, the reader will discover some exquisite characterizations, such as the author's description of A.: She was not being but becoming.

John Banville seems to have had a lot of fun writing Athena. The novel contains detailed descriptions of seven pictures by 17th-century Dutch painters. Their names are Johann Livelb, J van Hollbein, L E van Ohlbijn, Job van Hellin, L van Hobelijn, and two very similar ones. This alphabet-related joke made me round up my rating to three stars.

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