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kellyroll's review against another edition
4.0
Easily one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It's no small task to read, but well worth it in my opinion.
flanandsorbet's review against another edition
1.0
I read the first half of Justine with creeping certainty that its themes of love and passion were really the author's defense of male sexual vanity. After reflection, I feel that the author went further--this is a work of profound misogyny. This lush, beautifully written book carefully details, with great artistic restraint, how a young woman's sexuality was destroyed by childhood sexual abuse. But rather than allow her or any of her seemingly thousands of lovers any insight, even after she is analyzed by Sigmund Freud, into how she became a "nymphomaniac", her promiscuity serves as a tantalizing allure for men and it seems, readers of this book. Ick.
I put the book down, for good, when distraught Justine confesses to her husband that a relative raped her when she was a child, and she cannot stop thinking about her rapist. The husband responds, not with rage, but jealosy. Jealosy. The husband becomes obsessed with the man who raped his wife not because the rapist permanently damaged her ability to experience sexual intimacy, but because the husband wishes he could have been the one to leave that indelible mark.
Now that I have reached that key scene, the earlier part of the book makes sense. Durrell has written a massive opus on sexual grooming. But the grooming victims are not his characters, they are his readers. The main character of this novel, the city of Alexandria, is a picturesquely decaying sink of history, cultures and sexual license. The men in book are in endless search of new prostitutes. Within the first few pages, Durrell lets us know that if we are worldly and urbane, we will accept this as normal. If you, the reader, want to be a sophisticate, you must accept that men sexually abuse women and children, and that the damage inflicted on them is a marvelous, perplexing mystery about love and sex. Any other interpretation is unimaginable, will not be considered by Durrell. This, briefly, is what it must feel like to be possessed by male sexual vanity. That Durrell gives such careful clues about how Justine became damaged, and because they are consistent with what we know about the behavior of sexual abuse victims, this book reads as an overwrought, monstrous apologia to the indefensible.
I put the book down, for good, when distraught Justine confesses to her husband that a relative raped her when she was a child, and she cannot stop thinking about her rapist. The husband responds, not with rage, but jealosy. Jealosy. The husband becomes obsessed with the man who raped his wife not because the rapist permanently damaged her ability to experience sexual intimacy, but because the husband wishes he could have been the one to leave that indelible mark.
Now that I have reached that key scene, the earlier part of the book makes sense. Durrell has written a massive opus on sexual grooming. But the grooming victims are not his characters, they are his readers. The main character of this novel, the city of Alexandria, is a picturesquely decaying sink of history, cultures and sexual license. The men in book are in endless search of new prostitutes. Within the first few pages, Durrell lets us know that if we are worldly and urbane, we will accept this as normal. If you, the reader, want to be a sophisticate, you must accept that men sexually abuse women and children, and that the damage inflicted on them is a marvelous, perplexing mystery about love and sex. Any other interpretation is unimaginable, will not be considered by Durrell. This, briefly, is what it must feel like to be possessed by male sexual vanity. That Durrell gives such careful clues about how Justine became damaged, and because they are consistent with what we know about the behavior of sexual abuse victims, this book reads as an overwrought, monstrous apologia to the indefensible.
suzzeb22's review against another edition
4.0
Well. I am breathing a huge sigh of relief after actually finishing it. I started it over 15 years ago and only got a few dozen pages in. I often felt my mind wandering throughout the reading of this tome.
He is a gorgeous writer; his prose is eloquent and definitely evokes sights, atmosphere and smells. His characters are well fleshed out and I enjoyed a lot of the novel(s).
The first book Justine left me mostly confused. With Balthazar I didn't fare much better. I did enjoy Mountolive and Clea a lot more. Maybe he was started to get a second wind!
It isn't for the faint of heart but it's quite an accomplished work.
He is a gorgeous writer; his prose is eloquent and definitely evokes sights, atmosphere and smells. His characters are well fleshed out and I enjoyed a lot of the novel(s).
The first book Justine left me mostly confused. With Balthazar I didn't fare much better. I did enjoy Mountolive and Clea a lot more. Maybe he was started to get a second wind!
It isn't for the faint of heart but it's quite an accomplished work.
rumel456's review against another edition
5.0
It is probably the most overblown, the most undisciplined work I have ever read. At times it is wonderful and frequently it is utterly infuriating. It is however going to stay with me forever.
Exquisite unforgettable passages coexist with an often absurd and bombastic lexicon. Such diverse echoes as TS Eliot and John Le Carre reverberate throughout. Emotion blurs with intellect. Travelogue, philosophical examination and romance blur and blend with political thriller. There are also the undertones (overtones?) of the great British white male. Impossible to ignore even within their historical context.
There is also a thoroughly absorbing plot with a vast and complex cast of fascinating characters.
I don't think i have ever read a book where i have skipped so much and simultaneously found passages to read and reread again.
It’s tough going but definitely worth the roller coaster ride. It costs in time effort and patience but can be endlessly rewarding.
Exquisite unforgettable passages coexist with an often absurd and bombastic lexicon. Such diverse echoes as TS Eliot and John Le Carre reverberate throughout. Emotion blurs with intellect. Travelogue, philosophical examination and romance blur and blend with political thriller. There are also the undertones (overtones?) of the great British white male. Impossible to ignore even within their historical context.
There is also a thoroughly absorbing plot with a vast and complex cast of fascinating characters.
I don't think i have ever read a book where i have skipped so much and simultaneously found passages to read and reread again.
It’s tough going but definitely worth the roller coaster ride. It costs in time effort and patience but can be endlessly rewarding.
rdengling's review against another edition
5.0
This set of books is my favorite work of literature. I seldom reread books, but I have reread this collection at least five times. The prose is absolutely gorgeous. The characters are deep and complex and fascinating. And each of the books takes you deeper into the story in a way that makes you see undiscovered depths in what you'd thought you'd understood the first time through, in the previous book. The first three books cover the same time period, each time expanding our understanding through a larger point of view. And then the final book moves forward pat that time period. These books are a must read.
budgysmom's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
terrypaulpearce's review against another edition
2.0
This book reminds me of Moby Dick. Some profound, true ideas, but my God, the slog. The sentences. The long, archaic words. The clauses and sub clauses and sub sub clauses. I wanted to enjoy this, but life is short and I was too bored to get past page 100 or so.
ajreader's review against another edition
3.0
Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.
Alexandria, Egypt. The years before and during WWII. Darley, our narrator, shares the events of the city and the tangle of relationships amongst its occupants. Overall, I found this series of novels too loquacious and philosophical. People love these books, so I feel a little badly not loving them, but I just didn't. I really struggled to connect to the characters and follow the storyline. I see the skill behind the writing, for sure. I do not question that it is a literary masterpiece. Just one I didn't particularly love - or at least was not in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate.
Alexandria, Egypt. The years before and during WWII. Darley, our narrator, shares the events of the city and the tangle of relationships amongst its occupants. Overall, I found this series of novels too loquacious and philosophical. People love these books, so I feel a little badly not loving them, but I just didn't. I really struggled to connect to the characters and follow the storyline. I see the skill behind the writing, for sure. I do not question that it is a literary masterpiece. Just one I didn't particularly love - or at least was not in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate.
bennyandthejets420's review against another edition
4.0
Read in a state of obsession over the month of June. They have been sitting on my shelf ever since my eye caught the slim set of four in vibrant colors at a local Half Price books. I bought all four of them for like 7 dollars or something. Justine, in blue. Balthazar, in brown. Mountolive, in a deep green against a field of white. Clear, in gold and yellow. I had never heard of Laurence Durrell before and the whole set looked so attractive (inside a cardboard sleeve with a minaret on the cover) that I had to bite. I picked them up this summer because I realized this might be my last free summer to read whatever I want in the next 4 years (I'm getting my PhD in Rhetoric, already a year in) and I desperately wanted to read some fiction.
In the beginning of Clea, Durrell refers to his novels as a "word-continuum" and I agree 100%. While they are tightly plotted so as to bring revelations in the characters and the reader, I had to surrender myself over to pure atmosphere: the sights, smells, sounds of 1930s Alexandria. You don't so much read these books as smoke or drink them, preferably at an elegant street cafe or next to the ocean. Since the first three books go over the same stretch of time from different perspectives, the reader fully inhabits a world more so than any recent novel I have read. I get excited whenever Pursewarden or Clea turns up because I've been wanting to hear what they have to say about whatever's going on: arguments about art, Justine's relationships, etc. (Sidenote Clea and Pursewarden are clearly the best characters. While Balthazar seems the most level headed, he's just not as entertaining. Darley, frankly, is a bore. I didn't understand Justine. Nessim is cool, I guess).
The first book, Justine, is make or break if you ask me. It's such an impressionistic, almost hallucinatory book that I stopped 10 pages in several times before saying "Fuck it" and surrendering myself to whatever was going to happen. In the beginning, it felt like reading an elegant puzzle box. I read merely to see the wheels turn. To see different characters overlap and effect each other. I just didn't like Darley's POV that much. Once Balthazar introduced the idea of the great interlinear, the hypertext of both Balthazar's and Darley's POV on the same events, I suddenly found myself caring. It's hard to explain why, but the act of reading felt more like inhabiting a world, much more than Darley moaning about whether he likes Melissa or Justine the most. Mountolive (which elsewhere Durrell referred to as the clou) is what sealed the deal for me. It's a much more straightforward, naturalistic novel which layers over the bedroom intrigue with cultural, religious, and political discourse. Just as the third dimension adds depth to length and width, so does Mountolive add 'realism' to the quartet. Clea adds "time" to the trio, but I think it might be better to say that it adds motion. Sure, we see how time effects the Old Gang, but, more importantly, Durrell sets them off on little arcs: Darley and Clea become artists, Justine and Nessim are going to Switzerland to do some intrigue or something, Pombal is learning to love again, etc. My favorite part of Clear, though, was the Pursewarden notebook interlude (conversations with brother ass; i.e., Darley) a lovely chapter and one which doesn't contribute to the plot but gives the reader more of a sense of a word-continuum.
Overall, a lovely, sensuous read which takes some getting used to but which is ultimately worth the investment. A harlequin romance with intellectual aspirations. A study of the effects of space on personality. A starter course on how to write purple prose. A word-continuum.
In the beginning of Clea, Durrell refers to his novels as a "word-continuum" and I agree 100%. While they are tightly plotted so as to bring revelations in the characters and the reader, I had to surrender myself over to pure atmosphere: the sights, smells, sounds of 1930s Alexandria. You don't so much read these books as smoke or drink them, preferably at an elegant street cafe or next to the ocean. Since the first three books go over the same stretch of time from different perspectives, the reader fully inhabits a world more so than any recent novel I have read. I get excited whenever Pursewarden or Clea turns up because I've been wanting to hear what they have to say about whatever's going on: arguments about art, Justine's relationships, etc. (Sidenote Clea and Pursewarden are clearly the best characters. While Balthazar seems the most level headed, he's just not as entertaining. Darley, frankly, is a bore. I didn't understand Justine. Nessim is cool, I guess).
The first book, Justine, is make or break if you ask me. It's such an impressionistic, almost hallucinatory book that I stopped 10 pages in several times before saying "Fuck it" and surrendering myself to whatever was going to happen. In the beginning, it felt like reading an elegant puzzle box. I read merely to see the wheels turn. To see different characters overlap and effect each other. I just didn't like Darley's POV that much. Once Balthazar introduced the idea of the great interlinear, the hypertext of both Balthazar's and Darley's POV on the same events, I suddenly found myself caring. It's hard to explain why, but the act of reading felt more like inhabiting a world, much more than Darley moaning about whether he likes Melissa or Justine the most. Mountolive (which elsewhere Durrell referred to as the clou) is what sealed the deal for me. It's a much more straightforward, naturalistic novel which layers over the bedroom intrigue with cultural, religious, and political discourse. Just as the third dimension adds depth to length and width, so does Mountolive add 'realism' to the quartet. Clea adds "time" to the trio, but I think it might be better to say that it adds motion. Sure, we see how time effects the Old Gang, but, more importantly, Durrell sets them off on little arcs: Darley and Clea become artists, Justine and Nessim are going to Switzerland to do some intrigue or something, Pombal is learning to love again, etc. My favorite part of Clear, though, was the Pursewarden notebook interlude (conversations with brother ass; i.e., Darley) a lovely chapter and one which doesn't contribute to the plot but gives the reader more of a sense of a word-continuum.
Overall, a lovely, sensuous read which takes some getting used to but which is ultimately worth the investment. A harlequin romance with intellectual aspirations. A study of the effects of space on personality. A starter course on how to write purple prose. A word-continuum.
konigsburg's review against another edition
3.0
More than a bit ponderous and over-written, it’s a love story to pre-war and wartime Alexandria, Egypt: evocative, atmospheric to the point where the city is another character. The characters themselves are not much more than cardboard cutouts, and some of what happens reads more like a 1940s version of Tales of the City. Still, the third book of the Quartet, Mountolive, stands out for its better characterization and plot - and the set pieces are indeed wonderful - the duck hunt, the party with the dominos, the indelible Scobie. But it’s less brilliance than you’d want in exchange for nearly 900 pages.