The Book of Evidence by John Banville

First published: 1989

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological

Time of plot: 1980’s

Locale: Ireland

Principal characters

• Freddie Montgomery, a mathematician, convicted of murder
• Daphne, his wife
• Randolph, a drug dealer
• Aguirre, a loan shark
• Charlie French, Freddie’s friend
• Dolly, Freddie’s mother
• Joanne, her companion
• Helmut Behrens, an art connoisseur
• Anna Behrens, his daughter and Daphne’s roommate
• Josephine Bell, a servant who is killed by Freddie

The Story:

Freddie Montgomery, a former university lecturer in statistics, is in prison for murder, and he is ready to tell his story. He begins by describing the conditions of the prison he calls home, displaying in his tone a bravado that embraces his experience as a captured animal, a monster. He describes the noises and smells of prison but refuses to speak of the various kinds of darkness he and other prisoners face. This explicit refusal reveals the fear and uncertainty just beneath the controlled, analytical exterior Freddie generally presents.

Freddie introduces his wife, Daphne, and describes their life together, living in various places along the Mediterranean before returning to Ireland. He describes a life of modest luxury, and it becomes evident that they are living beyond their means. They make the acquaintance of a drug dealer named Randolph, and Freddie extorts a “loan” from him under the threat of revealing Randolph’s criminal activities. Randolph gets the money from Aguirre, a loan shark. Freddie does not repay the loan, though, so he receives Randolph’s ear in the mail—a threat from Aguirre. Freddie’s wife and son are held as hostages, so Freddie returns to Ireland to raise money to pay Aguirre and secure his family’s safety.

Eventually, Freddie goes to the home of his mother, Dolly, in Coolgrange, and engages in awkward conversation with her, a talk that escalates into fighting. He is surprised at the intimate nature of her relationship with her friend Joanne, after seeing them embrace and then finding them lying casually together on the bed. Dolly says that Joanne is like the son she never had. Freddie soon finds out, too, that his mother had sold some paintings that he had hoped to sell to raise money so that he could repay Aguirre. Dolly had sold the painting to Helmut Behrens, an art connoisseur, leading Freddie to fly into a rage. Behrens, Freddie’s father, and dealer and gallery owner Charlie French used to buy and sell paintings together.

Freddie leaves for Whitewater, the Behrens estate, to find out the fate of the paintings. His description of Whitewater shows his sensitivity to aesthetic stimuli, and he begins to describe in detail his love for the Portrait of a Woman with Gloves. From Behrens he learns that the paintings sold by his mother were of little value, and that they have been resold. Behrens had bought them from Dolly at an inflated price because of his admiration for her.

Nearly penniless and unable to return to Coolgrange, Freddie takes a room in town. The next day he hatches a half-baked plan to steal the painting that has captivated him. He buys twine, wrapping paper, rope, and a hammer, and rents a car for which he cannot pay.

Freddie returns to Whitewater to steal the painting, and it becomes evident that his interest in the work is not financial; rather, he is captivated by the picture in a kind of aesthetic obsession. He thinks about the picture’s subject, its patron, and its artist, all those persons who had been involved in the circumstances of its creation. As his plan for stealing the painting falls apart, he compels a servant, Josephine Bell, to help him carry the framed work to his car. She is forced into the car, but she fights back. Freddie then beats her with a hammer. As he drives with her through the city, people assume that he is transporting an accident victim to the hospital. He drives Bell’s body to the seaside and ditches his bloodstained jacket, the painting, the car, and his unfortunate victim.

Without money, clothes, or a plan, Freddie returns to the pub and meets up again with Charlie. He goes home with him and ends up staying with him for the next ten days or so. Freddie reads about the manhunt in the newspaper, and he is beginning to understand something about the life he had taken. He buys clothes with Charlie’s credit cards and follows people around on the street, as if realizing for the first time the reality of other people. He drinks heavily. He also learns about Penelope, his father’s former mistress, and learns that Charlie and Behrens were both attracted to his mother; he also finds out that Charlie had a relationship with her.

Charlie hosts a dinner party. Freddie serves as a butler and has a furtive sexual encounter with one of the guests. The police finally come for him, and he considers taking hostages. Instead, he goes with the police quietly.

Now in prison, Freddie receives a visit from his wife (whom Aguirre had released without payment). He learns that his son suffers from a developmental disability. He also learns that he has been cut out of his mother’s will, but that his wife and son will live at Coolgrange as Joanne’s guests. He reveals that the authorities have questions about Charlie, who made money on Freddie’s father’s paintings on at least two occasions. Finally, he appears to make some strides in his search for meaning.

Bibliography

D’hoker, Elke. Visions of Alterity: Representation in the Works of John Banville. New York: Rodopi, 2004. Provides readings of Banville’s major novels, including The Book of Evidence, focusing on the relationship between the narrating self and the represented world.

Jackson, Tony E. “Science, Art, and the Shipwreck of Knowledge: The Novels of John Banville.” Contemporary Literature 38, no. 3 (Autumn, 1997): 510-533. Considers the postmodern nature of knowledge and truth and their juxtaposition with the representation of everyday life in Banville’s novels. Reads The Book of Evidence and his other art novels as attempts to find truth in art after failing to do so in science, depicting the protagonist Freddie as a scientist engaging violently with art.

McMinn, Joseph. The Supreme Fictions of John Banville. New York: Manchester University Press, 1999. A survey of Banville’s fiction focusing on the interrelationships between the novels and their postmodernist focus on the limitations of narrative. Addresses the chronological development of Banville’s subjects and style.

McNamee, Brendan. The Quest for God in the Novels of John Banville, 1973-2005: A Postmodern Spirituality. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Discusses the tensions between realism and postmodernism in Banville’s novels and shows how they form a bridge between mysticism and postmodernism.

Müller, Anja. “’You Have Been Framed’: The Function of Ekphrasis for the Representation of Women in John Banville’s Trilogy (The Book of Evidence, Ghosts, Athena).” Studies in the Novel 36, no. 2 (Summer, 2004): 185-205. A consideration of the role of ekphrasis (the imaginative verbal description of a work of art) in The Book of Evidence and two other novels, including analysis of the power dynamic inherent in the “framing” of female characters by the narrator.