What an amalgamation! The Infinities explores a family gathering at the Father’s deathbed. The whole 273 pages of prose cover roughly a 24-hour period. Banville gives you a window into the inner lives of his characters, giving expansive voice to their own mental musings. And here’s where it gets interesting. The narrator with access to these thoughts is none other than the Greek God, Hermes.

Yep, you heard that right. Hermes, Zeus, and Pan all interfere and play around with the already heightened emotions of the Godley family in their hour of desperation. The dying Father, Adam Godley, Sr., was a theoretical physicist, who developed a paradigm-shifting understanding of reality—the Brahma hypothesis—which postulated an infinity of realities, including, apparently, the Greek pantheon.

This is neither science-fiction, nor fantasy work—despite the Godley patriarch’s work. It’s a deep dive into human relationships as they’re manipulated and toyed with by unseen forces. That said, this book does include a framework to link together other works by Banville—his 1989 The Book of Evidence as well as his most current work, Singularities.

Banville’s profound understanding and use of the English language along with his insight into human nature and intriguing metanarrative will have me reading much more of his back catalogue.

Banville, John. The Infinities. Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.