THE SEA

John Lee has his work cut out, presenting this restrained and beautifully written novel, which won the Booker Prize in spite of an elegiac pace and almost complete absence of action except in memory. He gives us the inner life of Max Morden as he returns, after the death of his wife, Annie, from cancer, to a seaside village where he spent childhood summers. Max takes a room in a house once rented by the Grace family, who entranced him when he was young, and keeps company with The Little Corporal, his bottle of Napoleon Brandy, as he remembers the complicated loves of his childhood and his marriage. Lee's beautifully accented, fully felt performance brings warmth and color to what could be a bleak portrait. B.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 07]