“Christine Falls” by Benjamin Black (pseudonym of Booker Prize-winning author, John Banville): Is  protagonist’s memory gap an alcoholic blackout or a symptom of multiple personality? 

Like Banville’s protagonist (1) (see past post), Black’s protagonist (2) had been a victim of child abuse (2, p. 46). But unlike Banville’s protagonist, Black’s protagonist, Quirke, is a hospital pathologist and a recovering alcoholic.

“Quirke did not eat, but drank more whiskey instead. Suddenly he found himself in the kitchen, with Maggie [the maid at a family gathering]. He looked about in dazed surprise. He seemed to have come to, somehow just at that moment, leaning against the cupboard beside the sink, with his ankles crossed, nursing his whiskey glass to his midriff. What had happened to the intervening time, from when he was standing with the Judge [his relative] to now? Maggie, bustling about, was speaking to him, apparently in reply to something he had said, though what it might have been he could not think” (2, pp. 38-39).

Comment: At first glance, Quirke appears to have had an obvious alcoholic blackout. Nevertheless, it could actually have been a multiple-personality memory gap if Quirke has an alternate personality who likes to drink, which is a surprisingly common scenario. So I will wait to see if Quirke ever gets memory gaps when he is not intoxicated, and if there are any other signs of multiple personality.

1. John Banville. The Sea. New York, Vintage International, 2005.

2. Benjamin Black. Christine Falls. New York, Picador/Henry Holt, 2006.