The Lemur by John Banville

Irish author John Banville won the Man Booker prize in 2005 for his novel The Sea, and among many other nominations and awards, is considered a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He also writes mysteries under the name Benjamin Black, specifically the Quirke series of detective novels, and a Philip Marlowe novel The Black Eyed Blonde.

The Lemur is a novella originally commissioned by The New York Times Magazine.

Once-celebrated journalist John Glass leads an ostensibly luxurious and comfortable life in New York, indifferently married to the wealthy daughter of a top communications magnate. When Bill Mulholland asks his son-in-law to write his authorized biography, John interviews a shifty researcher who reminds him of a lemur. The next day, the lemur suggests he has interesting information, and then turns up dead. Could father Bill Mulholland have used his CIA connections to prevent embarrassing information becoming public? Or, was the information exposing something in Johns own life? What Glass discovers are family secrets so deep, any one might kill to keep them hidden.

Less a mystery than an intriguing look into a dysfunctional family dynamic, this is so well written with each line packed with energy. I was 17 pages into it when I marvelled at how much Black conveyed, the choice of words and actions. We follow Glass as he balances his street level life of pubs and sources with the pristine rules of extreme wealth - literally living in a Glass tower, swaying with vertigo.

My complaint would be that it is too short - perhaps I enjoyed it too much to want it to end, I could have read more of his observant prose. The last book I read that was so concise and entirely engaging was The Collini Case.

Really recommended for New York atmosphere. Top marks.

2008 / Tradeback / 132 pages