This book is narrated by Freddie Montgomery, a 38-year-old brilliant but deeply amoral and narcissistic scientist. After drifting through Europe, Freddie returns to Ireland to raise cash because his wife and child are being held hostage by a Mediterranean gangster over a debt.
When his mother reveals she has sold off the family’s art collection to a wealthy neighbour, Freddie decides to steal back a small, unattributed 17th-century Dutch master painting, Portrait of a Woman with Gloves. During the amateurish heist, he is caught in the act by a young chambermaid. In a sudden outburst of detached, senseless violence, he bludgeons her to death with a hammer, flees with the artwork, and is later captured and jailed.
The plot is directly inspired by the real-life 1982 crimes of Malcolm Macarthur in Ireland. Macarthur, a wealthy and eccentric intellectual, shocked the nation when he brutally murdered a nurse and a farmer in an erratic attempt to steal a car and a gun to commit an armed robbery.
Ironically, while Freddie remains indifferent to human life, he is deeply moved and haunted by the portrait of the woman in the painting, obsessing over why he felt such a desperate urge to steal it. The “book of evidence” he writes is less of a legal defence and more of an internal exploration to find a coherent emotional identity that he has always lacked.
Banville (John Banville (Author of The Sea)) displays his trademark brilliant prose style in this novel. His writing is deeply poetic, rhythmic, and meticulously crafted. Every sentence feels as though it has been weighed, polished, and tested for its cadence. The author utilizes a massive, sophisticated vocabulary, frequently reviving archaic, precise, or obscure words to create an atmospheric, slightly antiquated texture.
This is a superb read and comes highly recommended. Check if the work is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue here Home | South Lanarkshire Libraries (sllclibrary.co.uk)
Shortlisted for the 1989 Booker Prize and Winner the Guinness Peat Aviation Award.
224 pages in Picador
First published 1989
ISBN 978-1035076796
John Banville