The Infinities by John Banville

This was so hard to read because I am glutton for narrative and this was slow, slow, slow. But beautiful. It’s the day in the life of a family where the father is dying from a stroke and they all gather, along with the playful but wicked gods. You get to see inside the minds of all the people and gradually their secret thoughts, their trials, their fears all unfold. They are petty and small but exactly the sorts of things we all live with, no matter how grand and important we are. Almost stream of consciousness really. Zeus pops into human form and bonks the beautiful daughter in law, Pan interferes and has done since the beginning, and Hermes also pretends to be a human being and arranges a marriage. But it is languorous, not fast and funny. Some reviewers claim it was a pretentious book and perhaps that's so. But can you ever get past Banville's language? 31/2 stars.