Customer Reviews

BALTHAZAR (Alexandria Quartet)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Balthazar" is the second of the sibling tomes of Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet". The novel allows the reader to dive again deep into Alexandrian life and see everything what happens already in "Justine" from a different angle.

Darley, the narrator, still living in seclusion on the remote Greek Island, has sent the story (i.e. Justine) to one of the Alexandrian friends, Balthazar, the Jewish, gay doctor interested in philosophy and theology, initiator of the Kabbalah group, suspected of spying activity. Balthazar during his short visit on the island gives Darley the manuscript back together with a substantial amount of notes, which (with Darley's comments) are reconstituted in this volume. Darley was prompted to add a lot of the notes, as, reflecting upon them, he realized that despite his doubts, expressed in "Justine", many things he took for granted are completely different than he thought.

Balthazar sees the events described in "Justine" from his own point of view, and, having often more information or just different sources than Darley, his versions of events add to or change the descriptions from the first volume. New characters are introduced, and those, who were merely mentioned or hinted upon (Pursewarden, Mountolive, Leila, Narouz), become central, and their preoccupations and emotions are at the first plane. These shifts, instead of clarifying things that were blurred and mysterious in "Justine" make the narrative even more slippery and allusive. New avenues open for each event, tales within tales are discovered, which need their own explanation, and the atmosphere is even more dreamy... The motivations of ome characters, especially Nessim, seem to change completely from what Darley perceived, as new events are revealed. The search for the truth obviously cannot end here, so the reader needs to proceed to "Mountolive".

Alexandria becomes even more of a main character in this novel, and definitely the one with the strongest and versatile personality. Most of the other characters, struck by destructive love (again the analysis of love is one of the main themes, although the secret service intrigue gets more momentum), are impressionable, prone to spontaneous, sudden behaviors, and transient. The climactic event, as the hunting party was in Justine, is this time the carnival ball, where the reader roams the streets together with the characters in disguise... and is a witness to another death.

"Balthazar" is even more full of aphorisms than "Justine" - there seems to be a sentence for any occasion, and whereas the generalizations of love may appear trivial, childish even, the truths about literature and theoretical background of Durrell's enterprise to create a novel which would reflect its times, are amazingly formulated and put into the mouth of the surprising number of the writer characters (look especially for what Pursewarden has to say).

In summary, this is another delightful volume, different than "Justine" and only giving the reader the appetite for more of Durrell's Alexandria!

As I read the second of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, I first looked for another focus. (I had been so impressed with the watercolor decriptions of the first.) In the beginning of the novel, I thought Durrell had decided to be more desciptive in the area of sounds and thought he had impishly personified this goal with a focus on a strange talking parrot.

However, I was soon drawn into the story. I forget my efforts at intellectualizing and found that the characters had broadened for me. I wanted to read about what was happening to them and what had happened to them. I found myself changed from a distant observer into one who empathized with the characters. I noticed that I had been jealous of Justine in the first novel and found myself happy that she was no longer worshipped in the second novel.

Durrell's desciptions went past lush and ripe into fascinating, fermenting, and magnetic. Intrigue is introduced. Other sides of incidents are shown. I loved this book and intend to read the other two in the series.

Sometimes I get the impression that Durrell had a life time stash of pithy quotes he just had to get worked in somewhere. In this book he has an addendum titled "Consequential Data." Don't miss these. For example, "Gamblers and lovers always play to lose."

BALTHAZAR, the second novel in Lawrence Durrell's ALEXANDRIA QUARTET, is a less daunting proposition than its predecessor, JUSTINE. The author points out that the first three novels (these two plus MOUNTOLIVE) all overlap in time, looking at the same events from different perspectives; only the fourth book, CLEA, is a true sequel. Nonetheless, it is essential to read JUSTINE first; the greater clarity and expansiveness of BALTHAZAR is possible only because the reader already knows most of the characters and events; there is not enough explanation for the story to stand on its own.

The set-up is simple. The narrator (who now has a name, Darley) receives a surprise visitor to his Greek island, Balthazar, the doctor who had played a secondary role in the earlier novel. He bears with him the manuscript of JUSTINE, which Darley had sent him for comment, and has just time to return it together with his own interleaved notes and marginalia, before his ship leaves again. So Darley/Durrell is left with this huge volume of new material, which he calls "the great Interlinear" as though it were a sacred text. He realizes that several of his assumptions in the original story were mistaken, and so is forced to tell it again, sometimes quoting Balthazar directly, sometimes reimagining it in his own voice.

The book is clearer than JUSTINE in several respects, as though emerging from smoke into light. Durrell seems to use fewer unexplained foreign words, though he still breaks into French at the drop of a hat. The chapters are shorter and more clearly marked. The narrative dwells longer on a few connected characters, or a linear sequence of events. While the climactic duck shoot was the only action set-piece in the earlier book, there are many here: Nessim's ride into the desert with his brother Narouz, the street festival of Sitna Mariam, the Venetian-style masked carnival, and several others. The effective addition of a second narrator (Balthazar) means that not everything is filtered through Darley's sensibility, so other characters develop greater individuality through the cross-lighting. I am not sure that they all become more likeable -- in particular, there is one scene with Clea near the end which strains my previous view of her as a hovering angel -- but it is easier to understand them. There is also more use of direct speech, so that the two older British characters, the writer Pursewarden and Scobie the old sailor, develop distinct (and rather funny) voices.

Add there is still the rich color and cadence of Durrell's descriptive language, a little overdone perhaps, but full of surprising word-choices and sharp observations, especially when capturing sounds: "From the throat of a narrow alley, spilled like a widening circle of fire upon the darkness, burst a long tilting gallery of human beings headed by the leaping acrobats and dwards of Alexandria, and followed at a dancing measure by the long grotesque cavalcade of gonfalons, rising and falling in a tide of mystical light, treading the peristaltic measure of the wild music -- nibbled out everywhere by the tattling flutes and the pang of drums or the long shivering orgasm of tembourines struck by the dervishes in their habits as they moved towards the site of the festival." No longer does this writing overwhelm the narrative it contains, nor does it merely decorate; rather, it articulates and propels the action, as this four-book sequence comes to seem less an outré experiment and more like a true novel of impressive scope.

Like "Justine", written in a hauntingly sensual style, but far more readable. Took me a much shorter time to read it. There are so many memorable passages of beauty and wisdom in both, one could fill a small notebook - on love and the human condition, and the beauty of nature. Durrell certainly had an alert and unusually articulate mind, writing both with poetry and precision. Published in 1957, yet timeless, as all classics are. I think it is supposed to take place before World War II. "Balthazar" has far more excitement than "Justine", moves at a quicker pace. Here we see all the same characters, yet all in a new light; we see farther and grasp what we see with new understanding. We get fresh info about Pursewarden, Nissim, Narouz, Justine, Darley (the narrator), Melissa, Clea, Pombal, Amaril, Leila, Mountolive, and the outrageous comic scenes built around Scobie. Throughout the entire four volumes that comprise "The Alexandria Quartet", Durrell is constantly backfilling, a technique I particularly love, until at the last, all is revealed. That same technique was also used by Sir Charles Percy Snow in his 11 volume series "Strangers and "Brothers", but perhaps to a lesser extant. Durrell is the master here in letting us see only so much, no further, until the last volume. A rave review

I admit that I have not read "Justine", the first novel of Durrell's famous Alexandria Quartet. Perhaps if I had started at the beginning, I might have had a more favorable impression. Yet I do feel that BALTHAZAR can stand alone as a novel, even if a reader were to be better served by reading all four in order. Durrell's writing is fabulous. Lemon-scented, mauve, pearly Alexandria with the white stalks of its minarets, "the town that breaks open at sunset like a rose"; beggars beside the Rolls Royces, the human flotsam of the Mediterranean, the tawdry revels of the Christian carnival---all appear so pleasingly haunting and decrepit. Durrell's novel is full of "wisdom"--perhaps a lifetime's supply of epigrams on every conceivable subject, saved over the years by the author as he thought of them on sleepless nights, or written down as he heard them at the cafes and salons of the Middle East. To paraphrase the author, "reading joins you to a work, then divides you". I plunged headlong into BALTHAZAR, hoping for a good read, but came out worse off. I felt I had been offered a plate of decadence and cynicism, and not wanting to play the chicken, taken several bites. I didn't like the taste. What I felt, most of all, was that I was an outsider; the observer of a clique or in-group. The author/narrator knew, all the characters knew, but I didn't know. The prose was designed to keep me from knowing. I had to guess or intrigue with myself in order to find out where this novel was going and who all these people were. I did not enjoy the experience very much, though I admit that it might be just the ticket for some. I repeatedly asked myself, "Is it worth finding out ? Do you really care ? Or are these just a bunch of people hopelessly sunk in jealousy, perversion, sex and substance abuse, who prize infidelity above all ? Is this what the author considers usual life ? Why should I try to discover who really loved or cared about whom ?" I concluded that it didn't matter to me very much.

The group broke apart through death, anger, jealousy, and fatigue. BALTHAZAR traces the collapse of this in-grown little society within colonial Alexandria, before the tides of nationalism drowned its international, "Levantine" character forever. If you admire style, eliptical narrative, and skillful description laced with epigrams, this could be a five star novel. Not for me.

The conceit in Balthazar is that the narrator of the first novel in this series of four (Justine) has sent the first manuscript to his friend, Balthazar, who has returned it with inter-linear notes. As we would expect, Balthazar upsets the notions of the first book, revealing secrets and sowing doubt about the veracity of events. And this is the genius of the Alexandria Quartet: it is constantly upsetting our notions of the characters and their motivations while at the same time deepening our understanding of their lives and struggles. Mysteries are revealed, but new ones are planted.

A new layer of history, interpersonal intricacies, told through another point of view, was added to the characters of Justine, while the persona of the city Alexandria and theme of love and desires permeates and ferments like aged wines. Durrell's masterly prose is further enriched by germinating characters and maturing plots.

Balthazar is the second volume of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. In the first book, Justine, the narrator Darley, an Irish expatriate living and teahing in Alexandria, described his fascination with the ancient Egyptian city and his immersion into the complex social life of the Alexandrians. As a writer, he wants to capture the essence of the city.

The second volume is the Darley's review of an interlinear sent to him by Balthazar a psychiatrist acquaintence who presents another more informed view of the situation described in Justine. Key information not earlier available is supplied and the historical accuracy of events are supplemented by another layer of experience and interpretation. The personalities of the characters are shown to be less fixed and more determined by planned and chance events and locations than the narrator presented in volume one of the quartet.

When there is limited information and insight, a point of view relies on Darley's projections of his own personality and life history necessarily limiting the understanding of a city, its citizens, and the artistic conception of the characters. Balthazar is a psychiatrist who focuses on realistic interpretations of emotions related to character interactions rather than presenting psychoanalytic jargon to obfuscate psychological history. Darley gains startling insight from the writing of Balthazar, his perspective broadens and deepens, and he adds the relativity of time as a factor in his understanding of emotions, especially love and betrayal.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to the next layer of the story, Mountolive, the third dimension of this evolving work of art. The analysis will continue in the third volume from the point of view of Mountolive, a British Ambassador.

"Balthazar" has always been my favorite novel of the "Alexandria Quartet".

I just finished reading "Justine" again for the first time in 30 years. In doing so I've discovered how different I am now. 30 years ago, I found "Justine" magical, rich, complex, psychological. And it requires a huge vocabulary (reading it expanded mine tremendously). I could rarely read more than a couple of pages without having to stop to absorb it.

Now, as a man in his 50s, I was less charmed by "Justine". But I also look forward to reading "Balthazar" again, because I remember the way it takes "Justine" and stands it on its head, takes every assumption the author of "Justine" was making, and explaining it in an entirely new light. Because that's what "Balthazar" does -- the conceit is that the "author" of "Justine" sends his manuscript to the character Balthazar for his input. Balthazar, writes what is called the "interlinear", where Balthazar writes the "truth" in between the lines. Brilliant.

So I finally "get it" (I'm sorry for all the quotes). Durrell was influenced by the ideas of Einstein -- Three dimensions of space, one of time, so three novels that tell the same story from three different perspectives (Justine, Balthazar, and Mountolive) and one of time (Clea, which is the sequel, which departs in time from the first three novels).

This is a wonderful work (the quartet as a whole, I mean). Justine can be difficult to take, unless you are into endless, poetic descriptions of place and time (and they are amazing). Balthazar is fascinating; Mountolive is distant and the only 3rd person narrative in the set, so feels very different from the others. And then Clea, which is again first person but disappointing.

I think what Durrell wanted to do here was hugely admirable; I'm not sure he accomplished it. But this is great literature, without a doubt.

The second novel in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, "Balthazar" is very much in the same vein as its predecessor, "Justine": rollicking eloquence, elusive plot, and characters viewed dimly through layers of mystery. The writing is excellent and rich with emotion. Sometimes, however, the deliberately enigmatic nature of the story results in confusion; I simply didn't always know what was going on or which characters were being discussed. For such a short novel it can be a bit of a slog, especially if impatience is even an occasional vice of the reader. Almost a year passed between my reading of these first two novels, and I suspect that my comprehension level would have been markedly better if I had picked up the second novel sooner.