Customer Reviews

Birds Without Wings

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In terms of creating an athmosphere and establishing historic perspective, De Bernies is great. As in his previous book Captain Corelli's Mandoline(one of my favorites) he looks at how war distrupts otherwise peaceful, almost idyllic life. The characters are well drawn and deeply human--from the local pasha to the potter, they all have their dreams and foibles.

What irritated me very much is DeBernies conviction, which he does not really try to hide, taht life in the little village in the Ottoman empire was perfect until some hot heads decided to impose their nationalistic ideas. Politics in the Balkans has always been much more complex than that. If you look at the idilly he describes -- we have a village where people get along, but without references to historic events, you would think taht the action was taking place anywhere between 14th and 17th century, when indeed the story De Bernies is telling happens at the beginnign of the 20th century. Yes, the nationalist movements disrupted social peace, but such disruption was inevitable if the region was to catch up with progress. Add to that some historic inaccuracies and the novel declines significantly in value...

I loved Corelli's Mandolin - was one of my all-time favorite books. And John Lee is one of my all-time favorite narrators. When I started to listen to this unabridged audio book of Birds Without Wings, I gave it a few hours and almost gave up. Almost! Thank God I put in the time. This book is now up there with Corelli's Mandolin. Perhaps even surpassed it. And John Lee, as always, was brilliant. He got each character's spirit perfectly. I don't know how I could have read it myself and felt the same about the characters without his interpretations. I do admit this book takes a long time to understand why DeBernieres is going into such detail about some of the characters. And the jumping around doesn't make sense to me at first. But by the 2nd half of the book, I couldn't stop listening. I wanted to be in the book. I didn't want it to end. In some ways it never will; just as Corelli's Mandolin has lived on with me too. The telling of the war is one of the most honest accounts of what really living through a war must have been like. The characters were amazing. It is funny, sad, heartwarming, devastating, just amazing. It all comes together and in the end, I am glad I waited it out and gave it my all - because the author gave it his. Every word seems necessary in the end. A most powerful masterpiece; deserves to be much more well-known. I will definitely re-read this one!

I had never read anything by Louis de Bernieres as an author, but I was intrigued by the description on the back of this audiobook, so I decided to give it a try. I am really glad I did! This is a story that takes place in World War I and it is about the end of the Ottoman Empire. The characters you find in this story are so very intesting because they are not predictable stereotypes. Instead, they are complex human beings with feelings that you can really understand. For example, one might not relate to the character of Rustem Bey at first, because he stones his wife for adultery. But later as his character is later revealed to the reader, one sees the true remourse and shame he feels for what he did. We also follow Rustem Bey as he searches for love and finally finds it in the person of Layla, his mistress. The description of her first seduction of her lover was truly lovely and romantic. I might want to listen to that part again!

The characters in the story are come to life as they are beautifully read by Hugh Bonneville. He expresses both the characters and their emotions extremely well.

I know that I relate to the characters in a story really well when I find myself thinking about them when I am not listening to the book, but going about my daily life. Indeed, I found myself thinking not only about the characters, but about war and its horrors. I don't think I will soon forget the image that De Bernieres painted in my mind of soldiers suffering and dying from Dysentery. How awful. We should never forget that these things happen.

Listening to this book made me want to try perhaps reading more of Lois De Bernieres Books.