Corelli's Mandolin: A Novel by Louis de Bernières Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Corelli's Mandolin: A Novel
Book Review: The book was MUSIC!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book had depth..... I languished in it.Book Review: Read other books
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is a disappointment. The author chooses a good location, takes a rich canvas, writes well, but nevertheless falls short of writing a good novel.
One of the main problems is that the protagonists are not credible as characters. They are not morally complex and consequently they are not interesting. You might as well find these characters in comic strips, such as Tintin. Nice people, certainly, most of them; some of them even endearing, but flat, generic material: the dear widower father, helpful doctor to the islanders; his beautiful, clever daughter; the cheeky family goat; the funny, charming Italian officer with his mandolin; various eccentric villagers; the ancient-Greek-speaking behind-the-lines English officer; the good awkward German lieutenant, doing the terrible but then becoming a pastor, and so on.
As if realizing this weakness, the author tries to compensate by being modern and explicit: the beautiful daughter reproaches herself for her "sluttish thoughts", Captain Corelli's opera choir practices in the latrine, and so on. The story ends in a brutal massacre of Italian soldiers by their former German allies.
However, this won't do. The entire setting, reuniting old lovers eventually, is a smug little story, potentially even an abuse of historical background to manufacture the type of love story that will have housewives break into tears while reading on their beach holiday.
One can read the book, and even enjoy it in its good parts. But one simply cannot believe it. The problem is, as many of the reviews at Amazon show, that unfortunately many people actually find this type of writing credible.
We do not really need such books at all. Readers who want to have a profound approach to the issues addressed in this novel should turn to other books instead.
Book Review: BEAUTIFUL WRITING, Wonderful Story
Summary: 5 Stars
de Berniers' writing is lucious. It just flows off of the page. It's not just the story that will captivate you, but the way that de Berniers tells the story. The historical love story and the magical setting make for a wonderful combination. This is one book that I look forward to re-reading. If you saw the movie, you still don't have any idea what the book was about. Read this book!Book Review: A NOVEL OF WARTIME
Summary: 5 Stars
Based on an actual event, the Nazi takeover of the small Greek island, Cephalonia, and the murder of untold numbers of Italian troops who took the hands of the native Greeks in their stand against facism, Corelli's Mandolin is a searing, lyrically beautiful novel.Capt. Antonio Corelli heads the Italian post on Cephalonia. He is a dreamer, a mandolin player who gives little heed to the encroachments of fascism. Pelagia, the incandescently beautiful and willful daughter of the island's doctor is the object of Corelli's love. Their relationship is determined, to a large degree, by the constraints of invasion and war.
The novel's wartime years are dramatic with betrayals and counter plots by both individuals and nations. Concluding pages, relating the horrendous earthquake in the early 50s and the regime of George Papandreou, bring us to the present.
In this novel a Greek island at its nadir is described through the suffering of individuals and nations. The author's scope is immense; his imagination vivid.
Book Review: The Horrors and Idiocy of World War II
Summary: 5 Stars
This remarkable book brilliantly captures both the horrors and idiocy of the Second World War without leaving the confines of the small Greek island of Cephalonia. De Bernieres obviously loves his characters, and consequently so does the reader. The book swings from rich humor to abject misery effectively, and the love story between Pelagia, a Greek woman, and Antonio, an officer of the Italian army that is occupying the island, is real and touching. Their love is an antidote to the barbarity closing in around them. The secondary characters also come to life, and Mussolini's monologues, interspersed among the chapters, are a brilliant commentary on megalomania. The descriptions of life in the village on Cephalonia are both funny and moving, the battle scenes are horrifying, and the indecision of the Italian army's brass is so stupefying it still makes you angry sixty years later. I was surprised that the book went beyond the war years right up to the `90s, a touch I had mixed feelings about. But overall I thought the book a modern classic. Too bad the movie wasn't up to the standards of the book.