From: Geoff
Category: Amis
Date: 8/23/99
Time: 12:28:08 PM
Remote Name: 195.50.84.99
Dr Copernicus by John Banville.
Tired of Amis' half-hearted engagements with Postmodernism I opted for a head on collision with theory in the shape of John Banvilles eloquent fable charting the life of the man who turned the universe inside out like a bad sex change op.
A novel that is simulatenously a history of pre-renaissance europe, a biography and a novel rooted in contmeporary literature - 'Copernicus' is the last word in Gay astrologer epics. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay. Indeed, in Greek society being gay was viewed as integral in the reansition from childhood to manhood, and also generally believed to help you breathe underwater. So where did it all go wrong for Gayhood? Does civillization really regress? I thought it was like a train with no brakes....but I guess it's like a train with some brakes but a generally forward motion.
Anyway, Banville, Copernicus, very good. Five out of six.