The story of Faustus has attracted 
That this myth attracted the attention of John Banville was probably not so surprising. Similarly, it is probably not surprising that he sets the novel firmly in his beloved Ireland. Banville’s main character is Gabriel Swan, an autistic mathematical genius. And Mefisto is a thin, fox-like young man named Felix, a man full of sly jokes. However, the world Banville paints here is dark and grim, with a gloomy set of characters.
Mefisto is a book full of imagination, symbolism and wonderful language. Virtually every single sentence in the book is beautiful. This book is simply a mesmerizing display of his extraordinary skills as a wordsmith, but in a superb way where the words and sentences are not allowed to interfere with the story. Language is never the enemy of this extraordinary tale.
In my opinion Banville does a superb job in his treatment of the Faustus legend. His interpretation represents a very interesting remaking of the myth for the present day. His rewriting seems to be firmly based on Goethe more than the other interpretations, but the new story that emerges in Mefisto is fully his own and very original. It is a book I recommend, but not as the first Banville-book to read.
A novel of virtuosic scope, written in a style as pristine as the rarefied mountain air atop the Brocken. –The New York Times<
Intense, cerebral, linguistically inventive. –Cleveland Plain Dealer
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