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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DeBernieres is back, February 19, 2010
This review is from: Notwithstanding (Hardcover)
I have a problematic relationship with the writings of Louis de Bernieres. On the one hand, Corelli's Mandolin and the Senor Vivo trilogy rank among my favorite books. I rarely read a book a second time; I have read those four three times each, and Corelli's may be my favorite modern novel.
However (you knew this was coming), I found his last two full-length books, Birds Without Wings and A Partisan's Daughter disappointing: Birds felt like a rehash of Corelli, and Daughter was just too thin.
But de Bernieres is back in Corelli/Senor Vivo mode, by turns sweet, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreaking, and Notwithstanding is a joy. This collection of interwoven short pieces, about half published in British magazines and newspapers between 1996 and 2004, becomes a picture of village life in exurban London from the 1960s through the '90s. The historical sweep and grandeur of DeBernieres' best writing may not here, but that's okay, they don't belong here; in their place is the gentle quirkiness of English village life as it might never have been lived.
While the loving attitude toward his characters is distinctly de Bernieres, the writing style is pitched differently than in previous books: echoes of Milne and Barrie inform the bucolic, lost world deBernieres mourns. The tone is pitch-perfect; it's been a while since I've read sentences that are structurally so delightful. The writing here brings to mind images of Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple and Alistair Sim's St. Trinian's, and the arch British oddness that Monty Python taps into.
Writing this review makes me want to go back and read it again.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful author, October 22, 2010
This review is from: Notwithstanding (Hardcover)
I fell in love with de Bernieres on the basis of "Birds without Wings" and "Corelli's Mandolin", two of the most extraordinarily compelling historical novels in the English language. They are both long books that leave an indelible impression because of the context -- world war in Turkey and in Greece -- and the care the author takes with the character development.
"Notwithstanding" is a short, happy read of sketches of residents in the English town of Notwithstanding. It's a lovely read that also demonstrates the author's skill at creating marvelous charactors. But it won't change your life. "Birds without Wings" and "Corelli's Mandolin" will.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Conversations with George, December 25, 2010
"Britain is really an immense lunatic asylum. That is one of the things that distinguishes us among the nations. We have a very flexible conception of normality ... we believe in the right to eccentricity, as long as the eccentricities are large enough." - Author Louis de Bernières about his homeland in NOTWITHSTANDING
"They pass the house where the General used to live, and which is now fitfully occupied at weekends by a couple from London who have already complained about the noise of chickens from over the road, and the crack of shotguns in the Hurst. They want horses banned from parts of the common because they chew up the footpaths, and they want to stop the teenage boys roaring around the tracks on old motorbikes. They want a fence around the village pond so that their child won't fall in." - from NOTWITHSTANDING
Through the inhabitants of the fictional English village of Notwithstanding, Louis de Bernières pays loving tribute to the eccentric personalities and idyllic moments of country life that he remembered from his own upbringing in Wormley, Surrey on the direct rail line between London and Portsmouth. Or, if the moments were not an actual part of his boyhood, then at least what they could have been - moments that are vanishing, or have already vanished, under the pressure of urban migration from the British capital to the southern counties, particularly Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex.
Each chapter of NOTWITHSTANDING is essentially a very short story revolving around one or more inhabitants of the village. Many were originally published separately in various newspapers and magazines from 1996 to 2004. The timeframe in which the stories take place is the latter half of the twentieth century, though one, "The Devil and Bessie Maunderfield", occurs in the nineteenth.
The strength of the book lies in the obvious affection de Bernières has for his characters, whether it be young Robert fishing for the Girt Pike, or the General during his final descent into dementia, or the conversational companions of George the spider, or Miss Agatha Feakes during the last day of her life. (Surely, "The Death of Miss Agatha Feakes" is the volume's finest chapter and will perhaps bring tears to the reader's eyes.) Even the interloper from the city, Royston Chittock, is treated with a gentle, but nevertheless pointed, humor.
NOTHWITHSTANDING is a must read for anyone who loves rural England of the past or present. When next on a South West Train from London's Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbor, I shall regard Witley station (at Wormley) from a new perspective.
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