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Amazon.co.uk Review
British author Louis de Bernières is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island--the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins--would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions. Instead, de Bernières seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. Captain Corelli's Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.
Review
--"Washington Post Book World"
"An exuberant mixture of history and romance, written with a wit that is incandescent"
--"Los Angeles Times Book Review"
"Stunning...A high-spirited historical romance...Remarkable."
--"The New York Times Book Review"
"His novel will give pleasure to all sorts of readers. It is also so good that it will last."
--A.S. Byatt writing in "Evening Standard
"
"Captain Corelli's Mandolin is an emotional, funny, stunning novel which swings with wide smoothness between joy and bleakness, personal lives and history...it's lyrical and angry, satirical and earnest."
--"Observer
"
"A wonderful, hypnotic novel of fabulous scope and tremendous iridescent charm."
--Joseph Heller
"It is funny, heartbreaking, and horrifying in its fictional test
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Strength needs no excuses, does not have to give reasons.",
By
This review is from: Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Paperback)
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1995, Captain Corelli's Mandolin follows for sixty years the life of Pelagia and those who love her, beginning in World War II, when she and her father, a doctor on the small Greek island of Cephalonia, first get drawn into the war. Attractive and intelligent, Pelagia thinks herself in love with Mandras, an illiterate Greek fisherman who leaves for war. When the island is overtaken by the ineffectual Italian army, Captain Antonio Corelli is billeted in their small house. Corelli, whose response to "Heil, Hitler" was once "Heil, Puccini," is a musician, a mandolin player, who quickly establishes a singing group (meeting in the company's latrines) in preference to waging war. By the time the wounded Mandras returns, Pelagia and Corelli are in love.Author deBernieres vividly depicts the various political movements which play out in Cephalonia--the Italian occupation; the German "cleansing" in which the Germans, nearly defeated in Europe, exact revenge on the Italians who have, with a change of government, withdrawn their support; and the later Communist insurgency in Greece and their opposition by fascist partisans. Always connecting these events to the lives of Pelagia, her father, Mandras, and Corelli, the author gracefully depicts the impact of political changes on the lives of ordinary people. The horrors of the German revenge on the Italians reflect the wartime mentality and contrast with the good feelings various participants have been able to engender on a personal level. With the withdrawal of the Italians and Germans, the horrors of internecine warfare within the Greek community, and the extremes to which partisans, including Mandras, are willing to go are subjected to microscopic views. DeBernieres is equally adept at contrasting idealistic young love with the institutionalized mindlessness of political passion, the love of the arts and history with the expediencies of political dogma, and one's personal commitments to other individuals with the commitments to ideologies. Realistic at the same time that it is also romantic, the novel conveys the absurdities of politics and places them within the context of real life. The author's exuberant, descriptive style enlivens the present in Greece while also emphasizing the culture of the past, leading the reader to recognize, ultimately, that in all times, wherever one finds wit and humor, one also finds pathos lurking in the background. Mary Whipple
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Gracefully excellent beginning, but rushed to the finish...,
This review is from: Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Paperback)
After being told by my cousin that this was the "best book ever" I heeded her advice and bought the book. The first 20-30 pages are fairly slow but once I got used to the authors style the book moved into a class of its own. The following 300 or so pages are quite brilliant with fantastic characterisation mingled with Cephalonian history. I wanted this part of the book to go on and on and couldn't wait to see how things turned out. Then quite suddenly the book changed pace and the last 100 or so pages seemed to cover 10 times as many years as the first 300, lives were passed over with limited character development and I found myself forcing emotions for the events taking place. To be frank I felt cheated by this dissapointing ending and wanted to get it over with (and the only explanation I have is that the author did too!).Overall: buy it for the beginning and put up with the end.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best book i have ever read,
By Charlie B "ceexbee" (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Paperback)
i recently picked this book up in a charity shop before going on holiday, recalling that it had been 'all the rage' a few years ago. i was advised to give it at least the first 50 pages in order to get into it properly - this was good advice as the first few chapters are difficult to understand initially, yet vital to the overall plot. the writing is beautiful and really poetic, and for the first time i found myself genuinely just appreciating a really good piece of literature. admittedly this is probably not for everyone, but please don't think that you can watch the film instead and grasp the plot... having subsequently seen the film i was disappointed in the way that the book was portrayed, yet because the book is so complex and the various plots so intertwined, it would never have been simple to transform it on to screen. an amazing amazing book which had me sobbing at the end!
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