It lingers in your mind after you finished reading it -- partly because of its recondite sentences; partly because of its enthralling plots. Read the first chapter of The Sea by John Banville and a collection of reviews:

• Point of no return by Allan Massie @ The Scotsman (20050528)
  
• A ghost of a ghost by Lewis Jones @ The Telegraph (20050605)
• Review by David Grylls @ The Sunday Times (20050612)
  
• High tidings by Finn Fordham @ Guardian (20050625)
  
• A Wordy Widower With a Past by Michiko Kakutani @ The New York Times (20051101)
• "The Sea": Prizewinning novel of memory and loss by Robert Allen Papinchak @ The Seattle Times (20051104)
• Sepulcher by the sea by Gail Caldwell @ The Boston Globe (20051106)
• Review @ Publishers Weekly (20051107)
  
• Dark musing by the Irish sea by Yvonne Zipp @ Christian Science Monitor (20051108)
  
• Art and Ardor by John Crowley @ The Washington Post (20051113)
• Heavy With Grief and Mourning, Thick With Eccentric Verbiage by David Thomson @ The New Work Observer (20051114)
• Faking the Waves by Jessica Winter @ The Village Voice (20051114)
  
• Drowning Man by Terrence Rafferty @ The New York Times (20051127)
• More reviews on ReviewsOfBooks.com and the complete review.