Time Pieces

The often marvelous John Lee makes a regrettable choice in delivering this memoir from the Irish novelist John Banville. Banville is a dryly elegant stylist, but Lee chooses to perform his text as if it were a series of tales being told by a loudmouth in a pub, or a comic Irish character on stage, with dramatically rolled "r"s, and a pacing as if Banville's memories, reflections, and nuggets of history were stories with punch lines. By chewing the scenery in this way, he sends a message that he thinks the text needs all the dramatic help an actor can give it. It does not. Banville's memories of his youth in Wessex and his adult life in Dublin have all the interest and charm they need. B.G. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine