June 2021 Book, The Book of Evidence

Talk About Books meets every third Wednesday of the Month at 6:30 at Guilford Free Library.

The Book of Evidence is a 1989 novel by John Banville. The book is narrated by Freddie Montgomery, a 38-year-old scientist, who murders a servant girl during an attempt to steal a painting from a neighbour. On the  run, he hides out in the house of an old family friend who is a man of influence.  Freddie is an aimless drifter, and though he is a perceptive observer of himself and his surroundings, he is largely amoral. 

 The central events of the murder and subsequent flight are based on the 1982 case of Malcolm Edward MacArthur who killed a young nurse in Dublin during the course of stealing her car. MacArthur, a well-known eccentric in the city's social circles, took refuge (as a guest) at the home of Patrick Connolly, then the Irish Attorney General where he was ultimately arrested.

Banville attempts to give his writing "the kind of denseness and thickness that poetry has".

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