Max Morden, a former art historian, returns to the place where he had spent his childhood in order to make some semblance of peace with the passing of his diseased wife. He narrates the story in first person, unfolding it as anecdotes that keep jumping back and forth in time, and thus taking us along in a plunge into his feelings & deep rooted hurt that haven't found the solace to heal yet. 

John Banville gives a very pertinent voice to Max's character, an aching, aging man who is mindfully conscious about all his life experiences so far, pouring his heart out with immaculate details, remincent of them with an unbelievable fresh water-like clarity. 

The Sea, in its entire telling, reads like an insight into Max's personal journals, as we learn about the depths of his rawest emotions, unafraid to lay bare in front of us even the most vulnerable secrets of his life. The part where he recalls his first kiss in a cinema hall had me reading it over and over, just to absorb the beauty of its prose, and that is precisely my favourite thing about this book.

There's not enough plot as much as a nostalgic documentation of his memories, and the words John has employed here demanded me to google them every now and then, to stay on track and go wherever it was that the book was taking me.

Honestly, I have a varied mix of feelings about it, so much so that I can't say for sure if I enjoyed reading it thoroughly. It was utterly slow, even annoyingly exhausting at places.

However, the way the story led to the end, especially with the twists I couldn't foresee, made not dropping the book midway completely worth it. And also the poignant exploration of Max's relationship with his daughter, his soon to-be-dead wife, his soon to-be-found love interest, and people he may or may not have known from before.

I was drawing sympathties towards Max at multiple stages of the book, and I think it certainly deserves a re-read, perhaps at a more mature age, for one to be able to grasp its complexity firmly. The Sea won @thebookerprizes in 2005. //

I highly recommend this book to all book lovers out there. If anyone of you have already read it, then put your thoughts in the comments below. See you soon! Have a great day ahead.