i am unforgiven, since I have forgotten having read that book as well... the fact was that I enjoyed it... I read many years ago, still a student in high school, in my english class. I read it even before the movie. I enjoyed the book at that period of time and I liked the idea that a foreigner chose to write something about Greece (before Victoria Hislop). I think his main point of views were ok and he didn't write something "bad" about Greece or the resistance (I don't remember specifically what he wrote though...) One thing I remember learning from that book was that Italians had a mediterrenean "tamperamento" which was similar to the greek way, so even though they occupied greek houses, they all had fun together. After italians and german became enemies, greeks pleasantly offered refuge to italians in their own houses. This act is very generous and it carries a strong anti-war message: people usually have nothing that seperates them, but many things that unite them!

This book is a masterpiece, an epic, a carefully crafted and insightful piece that can make one laugh and cry and fume and swoon all within the space of a page.
Not a single person I have met who has read this book has not put it in their top ten books and it's really not hard to see why. Bernieres can capture, in around of 500 pages, the fleetingness of life, and injustices, but also its beauty (and this probably in the last 100 too). While there were moments where I could predict what was going to happen (there are after all only 7 possible skeletons for every story?), or events seemed pretty implausible/ridiculous, I never once could think of a way of making Bernieres' writing more perfect. A true literary genius.

This is a meaty, sweeping, witty, and romantic story about one of the more literarily-neglected corners of World War II, the involvement of Italy and Greece and the occupation by the former of the latter.

The action centers on the Greek island of Cephalonia, where the village doctor, Iannis, tends to the ailments of the locals and raises his beautiful and intelligent daughter, Pelagia. Pelagia's bethrothed, Mandras, disappears into the war, and when he returns, Pelagia no longer loves him, so he departs again, this time to take up with the Greek Communist resistance, where the brutality of his comrades changes him forever. Meanwhile, an Italian regiment imposes a benevolent occupation in Cephalonia, with their charming Captain, a mandolin player and composer, quartered in the doctor's home. Love, of course, blooms, but the realities of war, politics, and even natural disasters mean that the course of love will not run smooth, and not everyone will emerge unscathed.

The storytelling moves with agility from one perspective to another, including an interior monologue of Mussolini's, soldiers' diaries and letters, pamphlets, and Iannis' life's work of a very opinionated and personal history book. The settings are brilliantly described, the horrors of war and terror not whitewashed, yet the story has an overall feeling of goodness and romantic glow about it. But it's not sappy, either. There is plenty of good sharp wit and eroticism to keep things moving.

Bezdirən, bir o qədər də sevdirən, fərqli xalqların II Dünya müharibəsini yaşama tarixçəsi kimi diqqətəlayiqdir.

This is Benito Mussolini, one-time Fascist dictator of Italy and streetlight ornament of the same:

n  n

And this is Mussolini talking.

Unless you understand Italian, you have no idea what he's saying. But I bet, even without the historical context, you understand that he's a major asshole. Just look at the body language.

In a way, Louis de Bernières is a lot like that, a little in love with himself. His authorial blurb tells of his many manly adventures. He holds an advanced degree, but is desperate to come off as some sort of blue collar polymath. His novel suffers from it; just as Mussolini put on a façade to impress, so does de Bernières. At times, the first 150 pages read like a guy going through a thesaurus. The dialogue is solid, but he gets carried away with the narration. He flirts with magical realism, and does so in a manner more effective than most. I would provide an example, but I donated my copy to the local library.

One also gets the sense that he favors the equatorial lifestyle to the exclusion of all others. I have no problem with this (I, myself, prefer said lifestyle), but always casting the natives and Italians in a favorable light and never the Germans? It comes off a bit tidy. Maybe it helps move a love story that takes place during WWII from point to point.

The ending is just about the most unsatisfying thing I have ever read.

I'm going to be honest here, I read 60% of the book last year and finished it in the last two days. I know I'm in the minority with a two star rating. I like romance in real life but normally I'm not a fan of romance novels. With that being said I thought this was a beautiful love story. I enjoyed the description of the setting. I enjoy books in which I feel as if I know the characters and that was true with this book. I found the last part of the book to be mentally exhausting and struggled with it. Slow, slow pace with a rushed ending which felt as if the author wanted to tie it up quickly. An okay read for me but if I had it to do over again I would skip it. I actually scanned the last 20 to 25 %.

08/07/16...After thinking about it a couple f days I've changed my review.

Update, 11 July 2020, The Movie:

Shawn Slovo was the screen writer responsible for transforming Bernières novel into the two-hour movie. For the first two-thirds of the movie, in a manner very similar to the novel, Slovo does a remarkable job of boiling the book down to it's main theme of impossible love. It's the final third, of the movie that Slovo could not come to terms with. The movie quickly degrades at this point into action sequences that make little sense and an ending that is also less than captivating.

---

Book Review 2 July 2020:

There are countless books like Corelli’s Mandolin: boy meets girl, love ensues, and consequences abound. But Corelli’s Mandolin goes much farther in its embrace of love than most stories that follow that simple path.

Corelli’s Mandolin is a story about the vastness of love. It brings to life the power that love has over humans who were created to heed its call. Bernières depicts love as a force that pushes us forward on multiple paths as we move through our days. We propose to one another, we go to work, we fight wars, and we take revenge all because of love. All of this is included in Corelli’s Mandolin, which provides an opportunity to think about love in this larger context and to ponder the reasons for our own acts and the acts of those around us.

The flaw in this book is that its intensity runs out long before the book actually ends. Bernières spends 350 pages in developing a story about love that truly reached my heart. This main part of the book delicately covers a handful of years during WWII in a remote corner of the war under strangely unique circumstances that were endured by wonderfully unique characters. Then those years come to an end. Had the book ended at this point it could have captured the power of this story between its two covers.

But unfortunately, the book continues on for another 100 pages and does so with a change in both tone and time. Gone are the intricate interactions between characters. Decades of time rush by while contemporary Greek history is half-heartedly covered. Bernières then delivers his real ending that’s a bit insulting to reason as well as to the power of love; and by that time, the magic of those first 350 pages has faded away.

I read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin back in 1999 when I was in my first year university (back in the days when my reading habits were more voracious) My copy was actually given to me through a friend. I started it at 5:00am (at least some of my reading habits didn’t change!) and finished it at 2:00am. Yes it was the first time I had done something like that and no book as kept me transfixed like that. Anyway I never really bothered to return the book (which is very rare for me to do) and several years later my friend died of cancer so I guess I have a bit of her legacy.

Captain Correlli’s is a deceptively intricate novel which takes place on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the second World War and time progresses until the present day (or in this case 90’s Greece). It’s focuses upon Pelegia, the daughter of a physician , Captain Corelli , who makes an appearance when the Italians take over the island and Carlo, a homosexual Italian soldier, who ultimately turns out to be the novel’s plot twist. (don’t worry I’m not spoiling anything). Not to mention the charming cast of villagers who populate the novel.

Together these characters fall in and out of love , die and fight as the island is practically wiped out by the German occupation (they massacred the Italians) of the island. Ultimately it is love that lives on and leaves it’s traces til the very end.

Despite its relative thickness, de Bernieres does not beat around the bush once. Every single detail from a pea pulled out of an ear to the mandolin of the title recurs and shows up throughout the book’s progress. There are bits which contain genuine slapstick and will make you laugh out loud (the ‘joke war’ is particularly good) and there are bits which are genuinely disturbing and horrifying. It’s a very well-rounded novel and although there are shades of Garcia Marquez it never gets bogged down with the extra details.

In 2007 i got to meet Louis de Bernieres and I have to admit I found him a bit off-putting, even a bit of a braggart and a snob at times. It goes to show that one must exercise caution when meeting a literary hero.

I loved this book. I think a lot of people do.

This is a book I have heard about over time, that people have just adored and raved over. I really wanted to get to it eventually, and the (unofficial) trim challenge allowed me to finally delve into it. I did enjoy it, the writing was beautiful, and the story was indeed captitvating and engaging. Its just that I had the feeling of yet again coming in just under the rave. At points I had a harder time getting into it- which may have been my state of mind, rather than the book. I did enjoy it. It had a lyrical feel to it. WW2, Its good to finally read it.

Historical fiction set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Axis powers’ occupation in WWII. The first part focuses on a young Greek woman, Pelagia, and her widowed physician father, Dr. Iannis. Pelagia learns medical techniques by watching her father, and she is educated beyond the typical level (especially for a woman of the time) due to being the doctor’s only child. She and a local fisherman, Mandras, fall in love and get engaged. He goes off to fight the war on the Albanian front. During his absence, Pelagia writes to him but never receives a reply. Meanwhile, Captain Antonio Corelli, the leader of the Italian occupying forces, is housed with Dr. Iannis and Pelagia. He is no zealot – his goal is to have “a peaceful war.” At first Pelagia is determined to resist the occupiers, but she gradually begins to admire Corelli, especially when he plays his mandolin. Mandras returns and Pelagia must decide what to do.

The author gradually develops the romantic liaison between Corelli and Pelagia. In fact, this entire story is gradually layered. All of these characters are complex and come across as authentic, with both strengths and flaws. There are a number of secondary characters that complement the primary storylines, and they are beautifully rendered. For example, the (gay) relationship between Carlo and Francesco is both sweet and tragic. There is also a wayward priest and a strongman. They are eccentric and memorable characters, and they add depth to the narrative.

One of the primary themes is the adverse effects of ideologies on ordinary people. It includes real historical figures such as Mussolini, Hitler, and Metaxas. We follow Mandras from happy-go-lucky fisherman to vindictive soldier. Another main theme is the different types of love – brotherly, religious, romantic, familial, and sacrificial. This novel is a condemnation of totalitarianism. The author employs musical themes to offset some of the horrors of war.

This is a five-star read for the first three-quarters. The author took time in developing details and layers of setting and characters during the war. The last quarter takes large leaps in time and feels rushed in comparison. As a warning, war-time atrocities are vividly depicted.

4.5

Sublime.