January 16th, 2008
“There’s no point in doing anything if it’s not fun”
Thus spake John Banville on RTE Radio 1’s Arts Show last night ahead of the Arts Lives Being John Banville documentary on RTE 1 last night (you should be able to listen to it later today here:.
If the radio interview was peppered with insight and writerly soundbytes, the programme itself was fantastic. People I know, even ones that like his books, often accuse Banville of poe-facedness, but last night he was nothing but mischievous, warm and interesting. He was surprisingly revealing about his personal life, but it was when speaking about the craft of writing, that you could still see the fire in his belly. His literary novels, unlike his Benjamin Black crime novels, explore language and vocabulary in a way many writers avoid, but last night he spoke - as June Caldwell said to me - with “sentences as short as making fudge” and was all the more expressive and real for it.
What a great documentary. Well done Icebox Films.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I interviewed him a few years back for The Sea, just before he won the Booker and he knocked my socks off with his charm. He was incredibly warm and surprisingly open too. I was a fan before that, but become a fan for life after meeting him.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Anyone who reads Prague Pictures by Banville will encounter an individual who in no way can be described as dull and boring. Instead you will meet a warm and encouraging writer.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I didn’t see it all, I’ll admit, and while I agree that it was wonderful to hear him speak about the craft of writing, I will confess that to me (and to my sis who had to sit through much of it too), he came across like a man with tickets on himself. Which doesn’t undo the value of what he’s saying, but is irksome betimes, while amusing at others. Not boring, no, but a wee bit smug.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
His denial of the Graham Greene charge was wonderful, wasn’t it? I’d like to see a Collected Essays or Journalism of John Banville. He’s one of the few writers whose reviews every time compell me to keep reading until the end.
TEV has an extensive interview with him, for anyone who hasn’t come across it before.
http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/the_john_banville_interview/index.html
January 16th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Any chance those of us in ‘No TV Land’ can see this programme anywhere?
Anyone?
Please…
Jim.
January 16th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
It was a terrific documentary. Well done to RTE and everyone else involved. Banville, who has something of a reputation as a stern and austere man, came across as warm, witty and mischevous. I’ve always admired his honesty and his dedication to his craft - whether it be writing a novel or writing a review. His review of McEwan’s ‘Saturday’ which caused such a furore was devastatingly accurate. I, for one, cheered when he won the Man Booker prize for ‘The Sea’.