Some background: Last week I purchased Shroud by John Banville, swayed by The Elegant Variation’s general air of reverence/ fandom re: all things Banville. (As many of you may know, Mark is like the Kevin Nealon of subliminal Banville promotion: “Those printed words on the page make me feel happy — John Banville — reminding me of a writer who isn’t like other writers — super-genius …” Let’s just hope Mark doesn’t try boosting revenues at TEV by selling subliminal messages for popcorn and candybars or something. Mmm, popcorn and candybars.)

In an email Mark was all, “Er, that’s nice you picked up Banville, but Shroud isn’t the best place to start with him.” I reported this, and a reader asked in the Comments box what might be a better starting-off point.

Get Mark’s reply after the jump.

Mark Sarvas speaks of Banville:

Knowing nothing about the reader in question (I can make different recommendations when I know the reader’s preferences), I most typically direct folks to start with The Book Of Evidence, for which JB was Booker short-listed. It launches a trilogy which continues with Ghosts and Athena, so if someone takes a shine to Freddie Montgomery (B of E’s protag), he/she can follow his adventures. (As it happened, I read them out of sequence, starting with Athena, and in that case it really didn’t matter. It stands alone, whereas Ghosts is harder to read out without knowing B of E.) Athena, btw, might be my favorite (hard to say, though) for its sadness and longing; it’s a dysfunctionally romantic book.

Then there’s a second, looser trilogy — it’s more thematic, and bound by three male protagonists who are, well, let’s say wearing various forms of masks. It started with The Untouchable (Lannan Award winner and perhaps the closest to a proper narrative; JB’s not a plot guy, he’s a character guy, with the interiority of the male landscape being his metier), continued with Eclipse (which was the very first JB I read, and sent me ravenously racing back for the whole backlist) and culminates with Shroud. Both Eclipse and The Untouchable also make fine starting points.

The earlier science tetralogy is probably not a good starting point if only because I feel his style reaches its real maturity with the Evidence trilogy; however, if one has a taste for science and history, Doctor Copernicus and Kepler are both excellent books; Mefisto, which ends the tetralogy really is a bit of a bridge toward what’s to come with B of E, kind of like how “Interiors” bridges “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan”. However, there’s a small novella in this group — The Newton Letter – that’s wonderfully written, refined and polished, and does expose a reader to JB’s central preoccupations and high style in shorter form. (It should be noted that these themes – concern with “the thing itself” – is present from his first novel Nightspawn, and carries through to Shroud.)

So that’s probably a whole lot more than you wanted, but B of E, Eclipse and Untouchable are all good starting points; Newton Letter and Athena will also serve but come at his oeuvre a bit more sideways.