SOURCE: "Gossip," in London Review of Books, Vol. 19, No. 11, June 5, 1997, p. 23.

In the following review, Kermode discusses Banville's The Untouchable and asserts, "As to plot and scene and dialogue all is competent, even, at times, rich or funny. But again and again one feels that the writing is more assured when the story reaches a pause…."

[Banville's Untouchable] ought to be a good novel, for it is by a good writer and deals intelligently with a bit of British history that continues to interest us. And it certainly gives pleasure; so it seems a shade ungrateful to be asking what's wrong with it. Is this all? Is this the best a lively imagination can make of the plight of the virtuous spy, whether wild or sober, dedicated or not, Blunt or Burgess?

There is nothing much here to conflict with the stereotypical idea of the Thirties, the afternoon...