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Holy Orders A Quirke Novel Benjamin Black 9780805094404 Books

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Holy Orders A Quirke Novel Benjamin Black 9780805094404 Books

How often have you started reading a book in which the first several pages were beautifully written, only to notice that the prose grew progressively plainer and less interesting as you proceeded? Perhaps you’ve never been aware of that, but I sure have. It’s a sign that the author struggled to produce lyrical and evocative language in the opening chapter that went to the agent or publisher with an outline for approval — but lapsed into pedestrian prose once the project received a green light.

That phenomenon is especially notable in genre fiction — mysteries, science fiction, romance — but you won’t find it in any of the writing of Benjamin Black, a pseudonym for the Booker Prize-winning Irish author, John Banville. Banville is sometimes compared to Vladimir Nabokov — and you can see why even in his genre fiction. Holy Orders, the sixth of Banville’s novels (writing as Black) about the tortured Dublin pathologist who appears to be named only Quirke, is a textbook example of dazzling prose. Here, for example, are a few of the images Black sprinkles so generously through the pages of the story:

As he watched her, with people and cars flashing past, he experienced a sudden, swooping sensation in his chest, as it his heart had come loose for a second and dropped and bounced, like a ball attached to an elastic.
It was his experience that people always knew more than they thought they did. Things lay torpid at the bottom of their minds like fat pale fish in the depths of a muddy pond, and often, with a bit of effort, those fish could be made to swim up to the surface.
[T]he trees shivered and shook like racehorses waiting for the off, and fresh green leaves torn from their boughs whipped in wild flight down the middle of the road or plastered themselves to the pavements as if hiding their faces in terror.
After immersing myself in such glorious prose for the duration of this deeply satisfying tale, I now learn that Banville considers his crime writing to be “cheap fiction” and a craft as opposed to the art he brings to his other fiction. He professes to spend little time on these lesser efforts — though that’s very difficult to believe! — but, then, Banville has been quoted in a British magazine trashing all his own books (“I hate them all … I loathe them. They’re all a standing embarrassment.”). And this is a man who has been winning literary awards by the dozen since 1973 and is widely regarded as one of the true masters of English style.

With all this said, I must concede that any reader looking for nonstop action and sheer excitement won’t find them in Holy Orders. Black is concerned more with character development and scene-setting than with the usual conventions of the mystery genre. The story involves Quirke, his daughter Phebe, and his pal Inspector Hackett of the Garda (the Dublin police) in a complex plot with Irish “travelers” (called “tinkers” in Ireland in the 1950s, when the Quirke novels are set) and a passel of very unpleasant priests and their enforcers. This is not a happy tale, but reading it you’ll learn a good deal about the warp and woof of life in Dublin in that difficult time in the wake of the Second World War.


Tags : Holy Orders: A Quirke Novel [Benjamin Black] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>When the body of his daughter's friend is brought to his autopsy table, Quirke is plunged into a world of corruption that takes him to the darkest corners of the Irish Church and State.</b> At first they thought it was the body of a child. Later,Benjamin Black,Holy Orders: A Quirke Novel,Henry Holt and Co.,0805094407,Literary,Mystery & Detective - Historical,Murder;Investigation;Fiction.,Pathologists;Fiction.,Police;Ireland;Dublin;Fiction.,Catholic Church,Dublin,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - Mystery Detective,Fiction Mystery & Detective Historical,Ireland,Irish Novel And Short Story,Mystery & Detective - General,Mystery & Detective Historical,Mystery And Suspense Fiction,Noir,Pathologists,Police

Holy Orders A Quirke Novel Benjamin Black 9780805094404 Books Reviews

The Quirke series of books, written by Benjamin Black, are as good as it gets. Not only are the stories cogent, intriguing and compelling, within each and every paragraph is a sentence, sometimes more than one, that is so elegant, stitched together with the craftsmanship of a Master. There are (at least) a hundred single sentences that took my breath away.

My complements to you. I may actually start reading your other, Man Booker Prize winners under your 'other' name John Banville, I am a bit low-brow and there fore a mite intimidated...but I am a fan for life!
Benjamin Black is a great writer. I highlight many of his descriptions in my . The plot of this one takes many twists and turns and has an unusual conclusion. Quirke is a quirky character, a heavy drinker, unsure of himself as a man, carrying serious baggage from his past, but a charmer nonetheless. It's hard to know how he sustains a relationship with Isabel, even as he continually second-guesses himself about it. The Quirke novels are satisfying on many levels and a highly recommend them to anyone who like a mystery that asks the reader to be intelligent and have depth.
I love everything this author does under any name. His setting for the Quirke tales is always on the mark for era and theme, a period piece of a sort of early to mid 20th century society and mores.. This time he takes us on the hunt for the killer of Jimmy Minor, a character who appeared intermittently in prior volumes. This story is a bit close to the breast because Jimmy was a friend of his daughter Phoebe. As the tale unfolds we get to know Jimmy better in death than we did in life. One of his formerly unknown family members becomes the pivotal figure as the story unwinds. We continue to try to understand Quirke through his own history and where he finds himself in his own life as he helps to unravel the mystery. We meet characters heretofore unknown in this set of novels and learn a bit more of the local color and disarming characters, clerical and otherwise that appear in this world. Even in the telling of the fictional tale we learn a great deal of the religious and social culture that existed in Ireland at the time the story is set.

Benjamin Black chooses language that paints a real picture of the Dublin that was and , in some cases, still is. He uses some almost archaic and evocative language to draw the reader into the tale in the time and space in which it occurs. This should be a satisfactory read for any Black or Banville fan and a worthwhile choice for anyone who has a taste for Irish crime fiction by current writers.
All the reviewers above share my feeling that Banville has invaded Black's writing. I have read all of Benjamin Black's mystery novels and I love the characters as well as the walks around Dublin. I have read many of Banville's books and enjoyed some. Some, however, I have given up in despair, unable to wade through the dark quagmires. Black's mysteries do not deserve this treatment. The present one (Holy Orders) presents us with 250 pages of psycho-trauma and then solves the mystery in an amazing 30 pages. Benjamin Black can do better than that.

As I read the ending, he has left the door open to yet another Quirke novel. I hope that Benjamin is able to keep John shut up in another room when he works through this one.
The book began great - a murder to be solved. Unfortunately, that was the best part. Most of the story was taken up with long, drawn out descriptions of rain. This substituted for character and plot development. I found myself reading the first and last sentence of most paragraphs just to get to the end. There was a lot here that could have been developed, the story, for me, just never delivered.
How often have you started reading a book in which the first several pages were beautifully written, only to notice that the prose grew progressively plainer and less interesting as you proceeded? Perhaps you’ve never been aware of that, but I sure have. It’s a sign that the author struggled to produce lyrical and evocative language in the opening chapter that went to the agent or publisher with an outline for approval — but lapsed into pedestrian prose once the project received a green light.

That phenomenon is especially notable in genre fiction — mysteries, science fiction, romance — but you won’t find it in any of the writing of Benjamin Black, a pseudonym for the Booker Prize-winning Irish author, John Banville. Banville is sometimes compared to Vladimir Nabokov — and you can see why even in his genre fiction. Holy Orders, the sixth of Banville’s novels (writing as Black) about the tortured Dublin pathologist who appears to be named only Quirke, is a textbook example of dazzling prose. Here, for example, are a few of the images Black sprinkles so generously through the pages of the story

As he watched her, with people and cars flashing past, he experienced a sudden, swooping sensation in his chest, as it his heart had come loose for a second and dropped and bounced, like a ball attached to an elastic.
It was his experience that people always knew more than they thought they did. Things lay torpid at the bottom of their minds like fat pale fish in the depths of a muddy pond, and often, with a bit of effort, those fish could be made to swim up to the surface.
[T]he trees shivered and shook like racehorses waiting for the off, and fresh green leaves torn from their boughs whipped in wild flight down the middle of the road or plastered themselves to the pavements as if hiding their faces in terror.
After immersing myself in such glorious prose for the duration of this deeply satisfying tale, I now learn that Banville considers his crime writing to be “cheap fiction” and a craft as opposed to the art he brings to his other fiction. He professes to spend little time on these lesser efforts — though that’s very difficult to believe! — but, then, Banville has been quoted in a British magazine trashing all his own books (“I hate them all … I loathe them. They’re all a standing embarrassment.”). And this is a man who has been winning literary awards by the dozen since 1973 and is widely regarded as one of the true masters of English style.

With all this said, I must concede that any reader looking for nonstop action and sheer excitement won’t find them in Holy Orders. Black is concerned more with character development and scene-setting than with the usual conventions of the mystery genre. The story involves Quirke, his daughter Phebe, and his pal Inspector Hackett of the Garda (the Dublin police) in a complex plot with Irish “travelers” (called “tinkers” in Ireland in the 1950s, when the Quirke novels are set) and a passel of very unpleasant priests and their enforcers. This is not a happy tale, but reading it you’ll learn a good deal about the warp and woof of life in Dublin in that difficult time in the wake of the Second World War.