The Silver Swan: A Novel
by Benjamin Black
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Book Summary Information
Author: Benjamin BlackEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-04
ISBN: 0805081534
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Book Reviews of The Silver Swan: A Novel
Book Review: "Things that had seemed substantial evaporated into smoke and air...open doors were suddenly slammed shut in his face."
Summary: 4 Stars
Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black, features Quirke, a pathologist at the Hospital of the Holy Family in Dublin in this change-of-pace mystery set in 1950s Dublin. Quirke often finds it necessary to go beyond a pathologist's normal duties, and in this second novel in the Quirke series (after Christine Falls), he is visited by Billy Hunt, a casual friend from college, who asks him not to autopsy the body of his wife Deirdre. Deirdre may have drowned herself, and the family wants to avoid conflict with the Catholic Church over her burial. Quirke, in a secret autopsy, discovers that Deirdre may have been under the influence of both alcohol and drugs when she died, but he ensures a verdict of accidental drowning and then begins his private investigation into her death.
Through flashbacks and shifts in the point of view from Quirke to the other characters involved in Deirdre Hunt's story, her complicated life unfolds. Deirdre, partners in a beauty salon with the sleazy Leslie White, a silver-haired rou?, has also been exploring the "spiritual healing" of Dr. Hakeem Kreutz, a man of German/Indian background who teaches her about his Sufi religion while engaging in secret, illegal activities. Inevitably, Deirdre becomes more and more controlled by Leslie White and Kreutz, less able to make decisions, less grounded in reality. When Quirke's daughter Phoebe also becomes involved with these characters, the drama of Deirdre Hunt and her life hits home, and Quirke becomes even more determined to understand Deirdre's death.
Quirke is an engaging and sympathetic protagonist. Sober for six months when this novel opens, he longs to become closer to his daughter, though he recognizes that he has no right to her affection. As Quirke, Phoebe, Deirdre, and the other principal characters reveal their unique points of view, the characterization and the plot expand. Quirke's relationship with Leslie White's estranged wife is sensitively explored in intense, but often delicately rendered, scenes. The nightmarish atmosphere becomes increasingly fraught, however, sometimes developing into kinky sequences as characters give in to new sexual temptations and the lure of their "dark" sides.
Like Christine Falls, the novel depends to a great extent on coincidence and improbability for its action and resolutions, but Banville's talents, so obvious in his literary novels, are on full display. His descriptions bring Dublin to life, and his recognition of life's ethical subtleties (and the church's creation of many of those conflicts) gives some thematic punch to the novel. As the action leads to a fierce crescendo (and a somewhat ambiguous epilogue), the author also opens several new avenues for future novels. More plot-based, less thematic and less moralistic than Christine Falls, this second mystery will be followed in July 2008 by a new installment, The Lemur. Mary Whipple
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