A review by whogivesabook
Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell

4.0

Imagine everything you thought you knew, felt, remembered - was out of joint. It was an approximation, but not an accurate reflection of the world. Imagine you are told this. How would you feel? Would you believe?

The second novel is as much a reunion for the reader as for the character. Especially with a little time between each novel. I always find it hard to think of the first three books as sequels, because they're so intimately woven together.

This reading really brought home the odd character of Scobie. He'd been a curiosity to me in my younger days, but having met a man much like him, it rang a little sour and a little more tragic this time around. I'm so glad of his legacy.

'The city, inhabited by these memories of mine, moves not only backwards into our history, studded by the great names which mark every station of recorded time, but also back and forth in the living present, so to speak...'