Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Amsterdam Atlas 2005
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
In this thirteenth of the Irish author’s novels, central character Axel Vander is a valetudinarian professor who is—at first appearance—derived fairly directly from the posthumously unveiled Paul de Man. A writer and lecturer of savvy charisma emerged as an apparent refugee from Nazi Europe
Banville eventually reveals that the old professor did not write the articles. He was in fact a Jew who had been a schoolmate and friend of the original Axel Vander, who did write them. He adopted the Vander identity after the original (was) disappeared, and he needed a name under which to flee the country. “And yet…” Vander himself tells the reader, as he confesses to Cleave, "In my heart, I too wanted to see the stage cleared, the boards swept clean, the audience cowed and aghast. […] We would have, I would have, sacrificed anything to that transfiguring fire. I whisper it: and I still would. The people who turned my people to ash, they were the ones I hoped would win; I regret it yet that they lost." (223) And still that is not the bottom of the rabbit-hole of Professor Vander’s self (Banville never provides the character’s original name).
Cass Cleave is not a simple character either. She is prone to hallucinations, and she is working out her own complicated biographical plot. Vander meets Cleave in Turin, where the Holy Shroud provides one meaning of the “shroud” of the title, with an aura of mystery and magic. But it proves less important than the many biographical and psychological shrouds that are described throughout the novel. The great significance of Turin is that it is the town of the twilight of Nietzsche, whom Vander simply calls N. Vander and Cleave do not manage to visit the Shroud, but they do attempt to see the former apartment of “Il grande filosofo.” The prophetic alter ego of Nietzsche even appears in the minor role of “Dr. Zoroaster,” a local physician. Nietzsche’s writing is a preferred object of study for Vander just as it was for de Man.
De Man quotes Nietzsche’s “On the Use and Misuse of History for Life”: “[W]e try to give ourselves a new past from which we should have liked to descend instead of the past from which we descended. But this is also dangerous, because it is so difficult to trace the limit of one’s denial of the past, and because the newly invented nature is likely to be weaker than the previous one….” (Nietzsche in de Man, Blindness and Insight, 149-150.)
Vander ruefully entertains “a tale I had thought to think of no more until you brought it back.” He dispenses to Cleave, whom he designates as his biographer, not only memories of his old life but of his recent dreams. Banville’s novel does not promise any sense of esoteric mystery, but it reveals a startling depth in the anamnesia of personal secrets, and ultimately, an awareness that individuals are separated from each other by a chasm as deep as death--a divide that love simply makes visible. The shroud of the title is thus a display of false history, a shroud of concealment, and a funereal shroud.
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and rose to celebrity in the American academic establishment. In 1987, four years after his death, De Man’s actual complicity in Nazi anti-Semitism was revealed through the recovery of scores of articles that he had written for the pro-Nazi press in occupied Belgium. In Shroud, it first appears that the same scenario is being replayed with a slight variation: the exposure is threatened while Vander is still alive. A young Irish woman, Cass Cleave, has contacted him to let him know that she has discovered the compromising newspaper articles. (Some plot spoilers follow in this review.)Banville eventually reveals that the old professor did not write the articles. He was in fact a Jew who had been a schoolmate and friend of the original Axel Vander, who did write them. He adopted the Vander identity after the original (was) disappeared, and he needed a name under which to flee the country. “And yet…” Vander himself tells the reader, as he confesses to Cleave, "In my heart, I too wanted to see the stage cleared, the boards swept clean, the audience cowed and aghast. […] We would have, I would have, sacrificed anything to that transfiguring fire. I whisper it: and I still would. The people who turned my people to ash, they were the ones I hoped would win; I regret it yet that they lost." (223) And still that is not the bottom of the rabbit-hole of Professor Vander’s self (Banville never provides the character’s original name).
Cass Cleave is not a simple character either. She is prone to hallucinations, and she is working out her own complicated biographical plot. Vander meets Cleave in Turin, where the Holy Shroud provides one meaning of the “shroud” of the title, with an aura of mystery and magic. But it proves less important than the many biographical and psychological shrouds that are described throughout the novel. The great significance of Turin is that it is the town of the twilight of Nietzsche, whom Vander simply calls N. Vander and Cleave do not manage to visit the Shroud, but they do attempt to see the former apartment of “Il grande filosofo.” The prophetic alter ego of Nietzsche even appears in the minor role of “Dr. Zoroaster,” a local physician. Nietzsche’s writing is a preferred object of study for Vander just as it was for de Man.
De Man quotes Nietzsche’s “On the Use and Misuse of History for Life”: “[W]e try to give ourselves a new past from which we should have liked to descend instead of the past from which we descended. But this is also dangerous, because it is so difficult to trace the limit of one’s denial of the past, and because the newly invented nature is likely to be weaker than the previous one….” (Nietzsche in de Man, Blindness and Insight, 149-150.)
Vander ruefully entertains “a tale I had thought to think of no more until you brought it back.” He dispenses to Cleave, whom he designates as his biographer, not only memories of his old life but of his recent dreams. Banville’s novel does not promise any sense of esoteric mystery, but it reveals a startling depth in the anamnesia of personal secrets, and ultimately, an awareness that individuals are separated from each other by a chasm as deep as death--a divide that love simply makes visible. The shroud of the title is thus a display of false history, a shroud of concealment, and a funereal shroud.
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LibraryThing member yooperprof
Italy's alpine city of Turin is the setting for this recent novel by John Banville. It was my first stab at reading Banville, an Irish writer associated with opaque prose and a supersized vocabulary. In the book, a world-famous post-structuralist scholar, known for his deconstruction of texts, of
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history, and of himself, is forced to face up to his past when a demented Irish girl solves the riddle of his identity. It was interesting to spend time in Turin, the city where Nietzsche had his final mental breakdown. But I didn't care for this demented Irish girl: "Cass Cleave" just seemed like a character out of a minor Henry James novel. There are some beautiful passages in "Shroud," and the main character is quite hilarious at times in his deceptions and self-deceptions, but I don't think that the elements of "Shroud" added up. Furthermore, I resent it when contemporary authors use the Holocaust as a backdrop for a novel - unless it is REALLY REALLY necessary for them to do so, and I don't think it was "earned" here. Show Less
LibraryThing member NeilDalley
Turgid beyond belief. A disappointment after "The Sea". An intersting story made dull by showy description that makes the plot hard to follow at times. Madness is too dominant and depressing a theme.
LibraryThing member devenish
A beautifully told and extremely obscure tale in which little seems to happen.
An old man who is acclaimed as an academic is contacted by a strange young woman. She seems to be threatening to expose some secret aspect from his past. He agrees to meet her in Turin but when they do indeed meet,things
After several unlikely twists and turns in the story,the inevitable happens and 'Shroud' ands in disaster for all concerned.
Vander,the old man and Cleave,the young woman are both very unsympathetic characters and I doubt if any of the readers of 'Shroud' will feel empathy with either of them. For me then the whole point of this book fails I'm afraid.
Far from Banville's best work,this is still worth the effort (and it is an effort ) to read.
An old man who is acclaimed as an academic is contacted by a strange young woman. She seems to be threatening to expose some secret aspect from his past. He agrees to meet her in Turin but when they do indeed meet,things
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turnout differently than expected. The girl suffers from a rare form of mental illness ,the symptoms of which are recognizable to the old man.After several unlikely twists and turns in the story,the inevitable happens and 'Shroud' ands in disaster for all concerned.
Vander,the old man and Cleave,the young woman are both very unsympathetic characters and I doubt if any of the readers of 'Shroud' will feel empathy with either of them. For me then the whole point of this book fails I'm afraid.
Far from Banville's best work,this is still worth the effort (and it is an effort ) to read.
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LibraryThing member Eoin
A good, not great, novel about identity and and self-definition. The characters are slightly out-sized and the plot a bit choppy, but the prose is well turned. Also, I had to look up at least 50 words in the OED and all of them were used with absolute precision. A solid work, but not required.
LibraryThing member ivanfranko
Compulsive reading despite the ghastly characters, and the complex web of deception that Axel Vander builds around his identity.
Subjects
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 2002)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
319 p.; 21 cm
ISBN
9045006227 / 9789045006222