Ireland’s perennial entry in the Mr. Gravitas competition, John Banville, will be giving a reading at the Irish Writers’ Centre tomorrow (16 September).Although I’ve read, I think, four of his novels I’m somewhat on the fence about Banville (obviously I have to have read 10 novels by an author before I can come to a decision). Sure, the prose, as reviewers never cease pointing out, is well-honed, Nabokovian in its richness, etc. But it seems he lacks something pretty essential for a novelist, the ability to tell a story–or at least distract us from the lack of one. It’s as if Banville is rather embarrassed by this vulgar chore, so that his essentially static, observational books are occasionally bumped along by melodramatic incidents (often criminal acts). Also his minor characters are invariably caricatures, their sweaty faces described with icy loathing.Hmm..it seems like I’m getting off the fence. However, Banville gives very good lit crit–his reviews in the Irish Times (along with Eileen Battersby’s) are always worth checking out. Here he is discussing the Joyce industry with Michael Silverblatt on KCRWM.