Arts Lives

Another great episode of RTE's Arts Lives last night, this time featuring author John Banville. Having sat through Monday night's creepy and over-the-top Death Duties (State Pathologist Marie Cassidy describing her role, interrupted by lots of grisly reconstructions), it was refreshing, after last week's excellent Graham Linehan episode to see another quality and insightful documentary on RTE.

Banville is an author I've never learned to love. His work has often frustrated me and I'm afraid I have to admit that I never even finished his Booker winning The Sea. Perhaps I should go back to it. Lately I find I have less time to read but more desire to do so..

Anyway, the documentary was terrific. He was frank, funny, a little egotistic and apologetic where he felt he needed to be. His occasional pretensiousness seemed to genuinely embarrass him, which endeared him to the viewer. This viewer, at least. He displayed some remorse for a withering review he wrote of Ian McEwan's Saturday for the New Tork Times. In his defence he said that the review was more of a reaction to the other reviews he read at the time and not the book itself but still he said he was sorry for how he came across. And then he qualified it by saying he was a little bit sorry but not too much!

The documentary ended with Banville talking about death and how he had no fear of it but that he didn't ever want it to happen. He talked of how much joy he got from life (I believe he used the word exquisite to describe it), and as the documentary ended with shots of him walking around a rainy Dublin, it was hard not to agree with him.

Terrific stuff all round. And with features on Patrick McCabe and Ronnie Drew still to come in the series, it looks like it's going to be well worth setting the dvd recorder for Tuesday nights. If I knew how to set the dvd recorder..