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abilge's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve always believed that our inventions mirror our secret wishes.
Mountolive is the 3rd book of the Quartet however my favorite without a doubt. It presents almost the same story as the previous two books but from Mountolive’s perspective, offering a refreshing and distinctly British spy flavor that left me with a delighted smile as I read, hoping to uncover hints from Durrell’s past.
Furthermore, it has been such a long time since Egypt became Arabic that we seem to have forgotten the existence of the ancient Egyptians. This book serves as a reminder of that reality, bringing back the awareness of their historical presence.
The Copts the only branch of the Christian Church which was thoroughly integrated into the Orient! But then your good Bishop of Salisbury openly said he considered these oriental Christians as worse than infidels, and your Crusaders massacred them joyfully.
Mountolive is the 3rd book of the Quartet however my favorite without a doubt. It presents almost the same story as the previous two books but from Mountolive’s perspective, offering a refreshing and distinctly British spy flavor that left me with a delighted smile as I read, hoping to uncover hints from Durrell’s past.
Furthermore, it has been such a long time since Egypt became Arabic that we seem to have forgotten the existence of the ancient Egyptians. This book serves as a reminder of that reality, bringing back the awareness of their historical presence.
The Copts the only branch of the Christian Church which was thoroughly integrated into the Orient! But then your good Bishop of Salisbury openly said he considered these oriental Christians as worse than infidels, and your Crusaders massacred them joyfully.
whoopsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
michael5000's review against another edition
3.0
Third-person exposition looks great on Durrell! Lucid, and with unambiguous forward narrative movement, this version of the Rashoman soap opera that is the Alexandria Quartet looms like the Pharos above its two earlier shelfmates. Even a rustic like myself can stay engaged!
silvej01's review against another edition
5.0
Without taking away any of the excellence of the first two books of The Alexandria Quartet, this third one is better still. While the focus returns primarily to the same locale and time frame (with revealing personal histories provided), the book expands the story, just as Balthazar expanded on Justine, and greatly deepens and enriches our understanding of the decaying multi-cultural 1930s Alexandria and the motivations of Durrell's broad array of characters. Among other things, it adds a political dimension to what has largely been a focus on the nature of the love and Eros in all its varieties, and to a lesser extent, the spiritual, aesthetic, and intellectual life of its inhabitants. Again, and maybe even more so, the corroding, culturally complex, and at times squalid and decadent city of 1930s Alexandria is itself a central character in the book.
steven_nobody's review against another edition
5.0
This books adds a lot to The Alexandria Quartet. I love how every perception is different - we are all isolated and alone. Not a book for the squeamish. I will never forget the camel massacre, the bat massacre, and the attack in the child brothel.
thomasgoddard's review against another edition
3.0
A shift occurs and I find Mountolive to be the saddest of the first three novels. So much of it is reality in its darkest visage. A brutal and violent perspective.
Being my least favourite, perhaps for that very reason, I blitzed through to get to Clea more quickly.
It cannot be skipped. It is vital. We must all face reality.
'... the city with its obsessive rhythms of death and around them in the darkness -- the wail of tyres in empty squares, the scudding of liners, the piercing whaup of a tug in the inner harbour; he felt the dusty, deathward drift of the place as never before, settling year by year more firmly into the barren dunes of Mareotis. He turned his mind first this way and then that, like an hourglass; but it was always the same sand which shifted through it, the same questions which followed each other unanswerably at the same leaden pace.'
Being my least favourite, perhaps for that very reason, I blitzed through to get to Clea more quickly.
It cannot be skipped. It is vital. We must all face reality.
'... the city with its obsessive rhythms of death and around them in the darkness -- the wail of tyres in empty squares, the scudding of liners, the piercing whaup of a tug in the inner harbour; he felt the dusty, deathward drift of the place as never before, settling year by year more firmly into the barren dunes of Mareotis. He turned his mind first this way and then that, like an hourglass; but it was always the same sand which shifted through it, the same questions which followed each other unanswerably at the same leaden pace.'
whogivesabook's review against another edition
3.0
A shift occurs and I find Mountolive to be the saddest of the first three novels. So much of it is reality in its darkest visage. A brutal and violent perspective.
Being my least favourite, perhaps for that very reason, I blitzed through to get to Clea more quickly.
It cannot be skipped. It is vital. We must all face reality.
'... the city with its obsessive rhythms of death and around them in the darkness -- the wail of tyres in empty squares, the scudding of liners, the piercing whaup of a tug in the inner harbour; he felt the dusty, deathward drift of the place as never before, settling year by year more firmly into the barren dunes of Mareotis. He turned his mind first this way and then that, like an hourglass; but it was always the same sand which shifted through it, the same questions which followed each other unanswerably at the same leaden pace.'
Being my least favourite, perhaps for that very reason, I blitzed through to get to Clea more quickly.
It cannot be skipped. It is vital. We must all face reality.
'... the city with its obsessive rhythms of death and around them in the darkness -- the wail of tyres in empty squares, the scudding of liners, the piercing whaup of a tug in the inner harbour; he felt the dusty, deathward drift of the place as never before, settling year by year more firmly into the barren dunes of Mareotis. He turned his mind first this way and then that, like an hourglass; but it was always the same sand which shifted through it, the same questions which followed each other unanswerably at the same leaden pace.'
juliaem's review against another edition
4.0
Third of four in the Alexandria Quartet; review of the Quartet forthcoming. In the meantime, another favorite quote:
"Indeed, now the masters were beginning to find that they were, after all, the servants of the very forces which they had set in play, and that nature is inherently ingovernable. They were soon to be drawn along ways not of their choosing, trapped in a magnetic field, as it were, by the same forces which unwind the tides at the moon's bidding, or propel the glittering forces of salmon up a crowded river--actions curving and swelling into futurity beyond the powers of mortals to harness or divert."
"Indeed, now the masters were beginning to find that they were, after all, the servants of the very forces which they had set in play, and that nature is inherently ingovernable. They were soon to be drawn along ways not of their choosing, trapped in a magnetic field, as it were, by the same forces which unwind the tides at the moon's bidding, or propel the glittering forces of salmon up a crowded river--actions curving and swelling into futurity beyond the powers of mortals to harness or divert."
shanth's review against another edition
4.0
This third book in the quartet delves a lot more into the actual political intrigue going on in Alexandria instead of the love triangles (quadrilaterals? polygons?) and play of the interpersonal relationships of our cast of characters that drive the first two books. In an interesting way it shows how much that reality undergirds the rest of the plot when you look a little wider than Darley's myopic pov.
Also, some truly fascinating hilarious details like
Also, some truly fascinating hilarious details like