14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A rich novel of dark shades, July 4, 2007
For Patrick O'Brian's many fans of the towering nineteen novels of the Jack Aubrey series, the republication of The Catalans is an opportunity to get a different view some of the building blocks which in the series found their finest expression. The Catalan culture he paints so vividly, and the personalities and reflections of Xavier and Alain, the principal characters, representing aspects of O'Brians own character, resonate throughout with chords that are heard woven into the Aubrey books, but it must be said that whereas in the Aubrey series they are leavened with fine story telling, naval scholarship and above all wit, The Catalans is an altogether more introspective preparatory interlude.
Do not read this novel for a fast-moving adventure. But read it nonetheless, for there is much that is fine here. Xavier is a memorable, if off-putting, creature, and Alain's reflections have the immediacy of autobiography which adds some fascination. O'Brian's women are as always two dimensional creations which will continue to deny him a large appreciative female readership, but his descriptive passages are as wonderful as anything in his oeuvre, and The Catalans will haunt you long after you replace it on your shelf.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great novel, October 17, 2006
After having read most (but not all) of the naval historical novels of P.O'Brian, this book a very good and pleasant surprise. I did certainly like all of Maturin's and Aubrey's novels, but this is a much more profound immersion into human nature, feelings and behavior. The descriptions of the main actors and of the old style "Mediterranean" families around them (sorry for the previous real "Catalan" reviewer, this novel could have been written around the geographical details of many other corners facing this sea) are extremely well constructed and give a good and faithful picture of the culture and traditions of families around this region.
What could otherwise be a fairly trivial love story is used as a pretext to explore the deep feelings, the emotions and the driving forces of two very different men. Some pages reminded me somehow of the magical atmosphere in Sandor Marai's "Embers", certainly the long dialog at night between the two protagonists is very evocative in this sense. If you liked Marai's book, I am confident that you will enjoy this one.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating view of a master honing his skills, August 24, 2007
This is a fascinating work. Not a casual read. You have to be prepared to let yourself sink into many lengthy "descriptive" passages about that corner of southern France where the east end of the Pyrenees officially marks the Spanish border. The Catalan world and language bridge the nations, and O'Brian is clearly enthralled by them.
The plot is outlined in other reviews: the story of Alain Roig, the middle-aged learned doctor returning from a long stay in the Far East to the Catalan town of his birth, in response to a summons to help in a huge family issue, and how it plays out to everyone's surprise and probably the family's initial dismay, though as one puts the book down one can consider that they will probably feel it was for the best - except unhappy Xavier.
Mostly, the plot is a framework for O'Brian to create an in-depth exploration of some unusual and troubling states of the human heart, and to develop, try out, aspects of writing technique. Xavier's night-long soliloquy about his frightening lack of true emotion, his dismay at being inhumanly cold in situations that seem to demand a wrenching involvement, is a kind of tour-de-force in both respects.
Some little things amusingly foreshadow the Aubrey-Maturin series: the experiment with switching from regular narrative form, to scripting as in plays: "XAVIER: (some statement) ALAIN: the reply)." He uses this when there is a sustained interchange between two people, just to get away from the monotonous "Xavier said...Alain replied..." And this foreshadows the point in one of the A-M series which many critics have tut-tutted about, where someone has a musical instrument and O'Brian just writes "Plays." exactly like a stage-direction.
Then there is the performer clad in the skin of a bear, foreshadowing Jack's Aubrey's perilous escape through France to Spain. Again ,this is something that has been criticized as being too far-fetched: I think O'Brian just didn't want to waste a neat idea. Of course, the references to Alain's life in Prabang clearly foreshadow the East Indies episodes of A-M. Then, too, the beautiful Madeleine gives a glimpse of Diana Villiers: "..she moved with incredible distinction...Her fine head poised....She was in spirits too, that brilliant day..." O'Brian really admires grace in movement, mentioned many and many a time about Diana, for whom the most apt adjective would always be "spirited." (Though Madeleine is unlike Diana in other ways.)
The one thing that is completely lacking, in comparison with A-M, is any touch of humor. This story addresses itself to its characters and its settings with full seriousness. One would never, from this book, expect the overflowing, bubbling yet quiet wit that so totally pervades the A-M series. He must have mellowed by then.
Do not read this book if you are one of the many reviewers here who complain that books are "too long" or "too slow-moving," but if you like immersing yourself in an amazingly detailed world of people and place, you will enjoy it. But four stars, because I have to admit, in some ways the writing could be called a little self-indulgent.
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