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Alan Bray
Sep 2, 20214 min read
Haunt Me
The drowning of Chloe and Myles Grace, is alluded to mysteriously in The Sea’s first line: “They departed, the gods, on the day of the...
Alan Bray
Aug 26, 20214 min read
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, 20213 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20216 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20215 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20211 min read
"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, 20216 min read
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, 20214 min read
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...