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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
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
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
Spoiler
Memlik Pasha's urbane and ingenious bribe acceptance scheme in the guise of collecting rare editions of the Koranericjaysonnenscheinwriter2392's review
4.0
MOUNTOLIVE, BRILLIANT LANDSCAPES, DARK INTERIORS
Lawrence Durrell is a poet writing prose. MOUNTOLIVE is most vibrant and intriguing when the author is describing a landscape, a storm, a sector of the city--anything that will stay reasonably still and allow him to both represent and transform it with his verbal virtuosity. Durrell is also adept in foreshadowing scenes of unexpected horror, violence and corruption that are quite striking for their inventiveness. I particularly liked the scene in which Mountolive, the eponymous protagonist, has a rendezvous with Leila the older woman who aroused in him his first passion (but who was also fulfilling his Oedipal feelings toward his own mother—a theme which Durrell barely hints at...one wonders why) only to make a shattering discovery about romance. Another great scene ensues in which our ostensibly worldly diplomat, trying to free himself and recapture his youthful enthusiasm for Egypt, assumes the disguise of an Arab businessman, shows off his impeccable Arabic and scholarship to an Arab fakir, only to fall prey to his own naivite as he is led to an ingeniously conceived reckoning with grotesque terror.
Yet, Durrell's brilliance in personifying elements of weather and his dazzling vocabulary fall short when he describes human motivations and activities. In this area, he is often either facile, comical, or mawkishly grandiloquent. It is as if the eye that captures so well the light of the outdoors becomes over-exposed when describing the interiors of the human mind. When it comes to portraying his characters on the inside, Durrell falls back on metaphorical language that is too imprecise to be persuasive. Describing one emotion in terms of another emotion, etc. can seem an exasperating stalling tactic given what we know about human motivation and behavior. The author seems to investigate his characters' psychology, yet at the same time he digresses from it, as he winds the similes around their thoughts and encases their actions in a silk cocoon of lovely verbiage. (Ironically, his manner of treating his characters mirrors the way in which his Egyptian characters deal with justice.)
At times, all of this dazzling prose in the description of his characters' actions and feelings seems an elaborate cover up. One wonders if Durrell really cared about what human beings think or feel when they arrange their fates or the fates of others. At times, reading through these analogies piled on analogies about emotional states, I found myself muttering, "All right, already. Come out and say what he was truly feeling and what was going on here in this world you created. This is the crux of it, so tell me."
MOUNTOLIVE is a book about "life" or so the author wants us to believe. It is about death, corruption, the ways in which love and romance die, in which people who apparently love and like one another betray each other. On the other hand, it is a tragic structure that often houses a situation comedy. Awful things happen that end in punch lines.
However, it would be mean-spirited and unjust not to give Durrell his due as a writer. MOUNTOLIVE is worth reading for its set pieces. Depictions of locations, ceremonies, strange and exotic customs of people in a distant land are extraordinary in their eloquence and detail. One learns a great deal about Egypt, the Nile delta, the Copts, the complex and delicate relationship of the British Empire and the fledgling Egyptian government, and about the nature of diplomacy, itself.
Unfortunately, the reader learns less about the human heart and mind Durrell insists that he is so eager to explore. Nearly every human action in this novel is a one-liner, surrounded by gravid and diffuse speculations. Not enough happens between the principal characters in the form of activity or even dialogue. One reads that the principal characters were great friends and remarkable individuals, yet the author provides little basis for these claims. Which qualities and actions made them remarkable? How did they meet and become such close friends. What interests did they share? What did they talk about?
Such questions even a neighborhood gossip must answer to keep your interest and credulity. Yet, after 900+ pages (I read JUSTINE and BALTHAZAR before) these fundamental facts remain conundrums. It comes down to that infuriating line, “I guess you had to be there.” The most significant actions come to the reader after the fact...in the same way that deaths took place off-stage in the Greek tragedy. Meanwhile, anecdotes (the love affair between a surgeon and a woman without a nose comes to mind) are gratuitous sideshows that demonstrate the author's penchant for the grotesque.
In conclusion, I am glad that I read MOUNTOLIVE, but I remember liking JUSTINE and BALTHAZAR more--maybe because when I read those previous volumes in the ALEXANDRIA QUARTET, I expected less in a novel than I do now. Exoticism, titillation, a premonitory sense of human corruption and evil were enough to sustain my interest as a youth entering "the real world." Durrell was a brilliant writer, but like every writer, he had his sensitivities and blind spots, his particular sources of inspiration and insight, those subjects he wrote best and cared most about. Read Durrell to take a journey to an exotic place. For a journey into the human mind I would book another author.
Lawrence Durrell is a poet writing prose. MOUNTOLIVE is most vibrant and intriguing when the author is describing a landscape, a storm, a sector of the city--anything that will stay reasonably still and allow him to both represent and transform it with his verbal virtuosity. Durrell is also adept in foreshadowing scenes of unexpected horror, violence and corruption that are quite striking for their inventiveness. I particularly liked the scene in which Mountolive, the eponymous protagonist, has a rendezvous with Leila the older woman who aroused in him his first passion (but who was also fulfilling his Oedipal feelings toward his own mother—a theme which Durrell barely hints at...one wonders why) only to make a shattering discovery about romance. Another great scene ensues in which our ostensibly worldly diplomat, trying to free himself and recapture his youthful enthusiasm for Egypt, assumes the disguise of an Arab businessman, shows off his impeccable Arabic and scholarship to an Arab fakir, only to fall prey to his own naivite as he is led to an ingeniously conceived reckoning with grotesque terror.
Yet, Durrell's brilliance in personifying elements of weather and his dazzling vocabulary fall short when he describes human motivations and activities. In this area, he is often either facile, comical, or mawkishly grandiloquent. It is as if the eye that captures so well the light of the outdoors becomes over-exposed when describing the interiors of the human mind. When it comes to portraying his characters on the inside, Durrell falls back on metaphorical language that is too imprecise to be persuasive. Describing one emotion in terms of another emotion, etc. can seem an exasperating stalling tactic given what we know about human motivation and behavior. The author seems to investigate his characters' psychology, yet at the same time he digresses from it, as he winds the similes around their thoughts and encases their actions in a silk cocoon of lovely verbiage. (Ironically, his manner of treating his characters mirrors the way in which his Egyptian characters deal with justice.)
At times, all of this dazzling prose in the description of his characters' actions and feelings seems an elaborate cover up. One wonders if Durrell really cared about what human beings think or feel when they arrange their fates or the fates of others. At times, reading through these analogies piled on analogies about emotional states, I found myself muttering, "All right, already. Come out and say what he was truly feeling and what was going on here in this world you created. This is the crux of it, so tell me."
MOUNTOLIVE is a book about "life" or so the author wants us to believe. It is about death, corruption, the ways in which love and romance die, in which people who apparently love and like one another betray each other. On the other hand, it is a tragic structure that often houses a situation comedy. Awful things happen that end in punch lines.
However, it would be mean-spirited and unjust not to give Durrell his due as a writer. MOUNTOLIVE is worth reading for its set pieces. Depictions of locations, ceremonies, strange and exotic customs of people in a distant land are extraordinary in their eloquence and detail. One learns a great deal about Egypt, the Nile delta, the Copts, the complex and delicate relationship of the British Empire and the fledgling Egyptian government, and about the nature of diplomacy, itself.
Unfortunately, the reader learns less about the human heart and mind Durrell insists that he is so eager to explore. Nearly every human action in this novel is a one-liner, surrounded by gravid and diffuse speculations. Not enough happens between the principal characters in the form of activity or even dialogue. One reads that the principal characters were great friends and remarkable individuals, yet the author provides little basis for these claims. Which qualities and actions made them remarkable? How did they meet and become such close friends. What interests did they share? What did they talk about?
Such questions even a neighborhood gossip must answer to keep your interest and credulity. Yet, after 900+ pages (I read JUSTINE and BALTHAZAR before) these fundamental facts remain conundrums. It comes down to that infuriating line, “I guess you had to be there.” The most significant actions come to the reader after the fact...in the same way that deaths took place off-stage in the Greek tragedy. Meanwhile, anecdotes (the love affair between a surgeon and a woman without a nose comes to mind) are gratuitous sideshows that demonstrate the author's penchant for the grotesque.
In conclusion, I am glad that I read MOUNTOLIVE, but I remember liking JUSTINE and BALTHAZAR more--maybe because when I read those previous volumes in the ALEXANDRIA QUARTET, I expected less in a novel than I do now. Exoticism, titillation, a premonitory sense of human corruption and evil were enough to sustain my interest as a youth entering "the real world." Durrell was a brilliant writer, but like every writer, he had his sensitivities and blind spots, his particular sources of inspiration and insight, those subjects he wrote best and cared most about. Read Durrell to take a journey to an exotic place. For a journey into the human mind I would book another author.
lazygreypanda's review
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
merixien's review
4.0
Bu kitabın durumu benim için çok karışık. Seri boyunca pek çok şeyin yerine oturması açısından en iyi kitaptı. Ancak bu kitaptan sonra Justine i’i daha çok sevdim.
bobbo49's review
4.0
Third in the quartet, this volume is focused on the British diplomat Mountolive and his relationship with the Copt Hosnani family in Egypt just before World War II. The complex lives of the main actors/actresses are interwoven with the impending political (and religious) crisis in Egypt and the coming world war (and dramatic reduction of Britain's influence in the Middle East). The stories are compelling, even if the writing and language are occasionally too stilted for the modern reader (or at least for me). I do look forward to finishing the series this fall.
metaphorosis's review
3.0
reviews.metaphorosis.com
2.5 stars
When I was young, I used to play in the Pacific Ocean, where it meets the Oregon Coast. Even in summer, the water is cold - so cold that it hurts. Children, though, are tough, and I found that if I could take the pain long enough, eventually it would stop. My body would recognize that my brain just wasn't listening, and it would turn off the signal; I'd go numb, and then I could play in the water as long as I wanted - so long as I didn't get out again.
I hope that's not what's happening to me with The Alexandria Quartet. Whatever the case may be, I am warming slowly to it as I plod my way through. In fact, with Mountolive, I was able to manage a slow meander.
This book is substantially easier, and I would say substantially better, than its predecessors. Moving further away from Justine and Darley, respectively the focus and narrator of the first two books, it centers around a British diplomat, Mountolive, who made only the briefest of appearances before this. We start with his relationship with Leila, Nessim and Narouz' mother, and cling to that while fast forwarding through much of Mountolive's career, until he is at last posted back to Egypt.
The more linear nature of the story makes it substantially simpler to follow. Plus, of course, we know many of the characters by now. Pursewarden becomes more central, and Nessim remains. Others play smaller parts. We learn, as we by now expect, yet more and different things about certain events, and see them from yet another perspective. Durrell adds layers to his narrative even as he peels others back.
Overall, this is a substantially better story than the previous books. Mountolive is more interesting and less whiny than Darley. Even if we see now that Darley is meant to be somewhat foolish, it doesn't make the first two books more appealing. Justine becomes more and more complex, but unfortunately no more believable. In fact, the pieces of her that we've been provided become increasingly difficult to add up.
About two thirds of the way through (around Chapter X), the book begins to lose its grip on a decent story. Mountolive, always as self-absorbed as many of Durrell's characters, simply becomes more feckless, and less interesting.
At the end, Durrell seems to lose interest in his story altogether. While we have an intriguing scene with Leila that revisits the start of the book, they're relatively flat, unaccented. And then Mountolive disappears almost entirely, and we're left with Nessim and Narouz. Their relationship, initially interesting, but now merely opaque, is a sideshow, not the main attraction, and I can't account for its centrality here. It gives Durrell an opportunity to bring in Clea, for whom the last book is titled, but it seems otherwise irrelevant. One could argue that it helps close the story of Nessim and his dealings, but while they are important to the story, they are not what the book is really about. It's about Mountolive. I think that perhaps the book should have ended after Mountolive's reunion with Leila. The remainder could have been labeled epilogue, but could equally have been conveyed with a few sentences in Clea.
Thankfully, the prose in this book is also considerably lighter than the first two. Perhaps that's meant to indicate the difference between Darley's literary, and Mountolive's diplomatic approach. Whatever the reason, I found it a relief not to have to wade through metaphor on metaphor just to get through a street of the city.
All in all, a reasonable stand-alone story, and a good companion for the first two books of the Quartet. If you liked those, you'll enjoy this, with its new perspectives. If you didn't like those books, but are determined to press on, take heart! The going is easier here. All that said, I can't positively recommend this on its own. The abandonment of the main narrative means that the book functions largely as a support for the Quartet, and not as its own book.
A final note - my copy, part of Open Media's single-package Quartet, was very poorly proofread. It had quite a number of typographical errors - many of them with the feel of OCR errors. The first two books didn't have this annoying problem.
nobodyatall's review
2.0
This third novel in the Alexandria Quartet switches to a different narrator from the previous two and changes quite dramatically in style. Durrell's prose is still beautiful and engaging, but I didn't find this novel nearly as enjoyable as the previous two.
Of the three books I've read so far in the quartet, all of them have a layer of dismissive colonial racism in them and a similar current of misogyny. The first two books were good enough for this to spoil but not break them, whereas this novel seems more offensive more frequently, and combined with the change in style it just isn't an enjoyable or recommendable book.
Of the three books I've read so far in the quartet, all of them have a layer of dismissive colonial racism in them and a similar current of misogyny. The first two books were good enough for this to spoil but not break them, whereas this novel seems more offensive more frequently, and combined with the change in style it just isn't an enjoyable or recommendable book.