Wednesday 26 January 2011

de Bernières, Louis "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"

Bernières, Louis de "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" - 1994

This was the first book I ever read with a book club. While reading it, I wouldn't say I had a hard time understanding it but I probably could say I had a hard time getting to it. After discussing it, I looked at the book in a completely different way. That's why I've been a member of a book club ever since.

I think this book deserves more than a Hollywood movie, there are so many topics in the book itself, so many questions that come up. It certainly is one of those books that can be read more often than once.

The only thing I still don't like is the ending. It was too long in a way, too short in another. If you have read it, I am sure you know what I mean.

We discussed this in our British Book Club in May 1999.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

From the back cover:

"It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous - and a consummate musician. When the local doctor's daughter's letters to her fiance go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?"

I read "Birds Without Wings" in the meantime and absolutely loved it.

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