Customer Reviews

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

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

 

 

Yes, the storyline is clichéd. You have a loving couple which got separated when the male was called upon to fight the war. The couple got reunited after the war and they lived happily ever after. Sounds predictable? Probably, but the treatment of the subject matter makes the novel anything but boring. Credit goes to the skilful craft of the author Louis de Bernieres, whose style of witticism, humour, irreverence and sarcasm proved to be hypnotic and mesmerizing.

The theme of music was incorporated into various parts of the story, much to this music enthusiast's delight. The protagonist, Captain Antonio Corelli, plays the mandolin, which he used to charm his lover. The mandolin plays a significant role as the symbol of love between Corelli and Pelagia, and its `reappearance' towards the end of the book led to the reunion of the lovers. Set in the years of World War II in the Greek island of Cephallonia, "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" embodies the usual war themes of sacrifice, savagery, hardship and courage. But its light-hearted touch differentiates it from other books of similar genres. It does not seek to bombard the reader with descriptions of bloodshed or the atrocities of the war. Instead it focuses on fleshing out the characters of the story, effectively allowing the reader to feel for the characters as the story plods on.

I am glad I have not watched the motion picture version of this story. Because at least I know this highly enjoyable read has provided me with lots of space for my own imagination, before the director influences me.

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1995, Captain Corelli's Mandolin follows for sixty years the life of Pelagia and those who love her, beginning in World War II, when she and her father, a doctor on the small Greek island of Cephalonia, first get drawn into the war. Attractive and intelligent, Pelagia thinks herself in love with Mandras, an illiterate Greek fisherman who leaves for war. When the island is overtaken by the ineffectual Italian army, Captain Antonio Corelli is billeted in their small house. Corelli, whose response to "Heil, Hitler" was once "Heil, Puccini," is a musician, a mandolin player, who quickly establishes a singing group (meeting in the company's latrines) in preference to waging war. By the time the wounded Mandras returns, Pelagia and Corelli are in love.

Author deBernieres vividly depicts the various political movements which play out in Cephalonia--the Italian occupation; the German "cleansing" in which the Germans, nearly defeated in Europe, exact revenge on the Italians who have, with a change of government, withdrawn their support; and the later Communist insurgency in Greece and their opposition by fascist partisans. Always connecting these events to the lives of Pelagia, her father, Mandras, and Corelli, the author gracefully depicts the impact of political changes on the lives of ordinary people.

The horrors of the German revenge on the Italians reflect the wartime mentality and contrast with the good feelings various participants have been able to engender on a personal level. With the withdrawal of the Italians and Germans, the horrors of internecine warfare within the Greek community, and the extremes to which partisans, including Mandras, are willing to go are subjected to microscopic views.

DeBernieres is equally adept at contrasting idealistic young love with the institutionalized mindlessness of political passion, the love of the arts and history with the expediencies of political dogma, and one's personal commitments to other individuals with the commitments to ideologies. Realistic at the same time that it is also romantic, the novel conveys the absurdities of politics and places them within the context of real life. The author's exuberant, descriptive style enlivens the present in Greece while also emphasizing the culture of the past, leading the reader to recognize, ultimately, that in all times, wherever one finds wit and humor, one also finds pathos lurking in the background. n Mary Whipple

I have to admit putting off reading this book for a long time due to the hype. In fact I only read it after reading another book dealing with war-time Greece, Lawrence Norfolk's "In the Shape of Boar" (another fantastic read). I ended up loving it. The characters are so real, and they stay with you long after you've finished the book. The decline of the village throughout occupation was particularly sharply drawn. Not to be missed!

This novel is only worth 3 stars because of its lengthy descriptions of war, which extends to almost two-thirds of the 530 over pages. If it could be shortened and the pen put to good use, i.e. substituting the descriptions of war with issues to do with romance with Pelagia or Corelli as the protagonist, like the way you'll see in Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, then this book definitely worth 5-stars. After all, I feel the main theme here is romance, and in a book, or in any piece of literature or artwork, there should only be one main theme. Therefore, I perceive that the lengthy descriptions of war before Corelli met Pelagia, which at the same time has no relation to the romantic wait by Corelli, is just a deliberate flaunting of the author's knowledge of the war.

This book,when it arrived,proved to be a simplified text ("Level 6")and not the original novel.It is very disappointing and a major error that this is not made clear on the website

O.K. if you've seen the film it's woth reading, but if you haven't seen the film you may find it hard going. Stick with though once you've started it does get better.

I really liked the book except for the section after the war. It feels tacked on and false. The book would have been much better if it had ended with the end of the war.