Customer Reviews

Ports of Call

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very pleasant read. It is how a novel should be, effortless and touching essentially human issues, like love and destiny.

His third person narrative makes it interesting and allows Amin to voice his own thoughts throughout.

It is full of regional colors, characters and history, so typical of most of his writing. Quintessential Mediterane.

I was shocked to find out that his "Balthasar's Travels" is yet to be pubished here. I read the translation, it is a magnificient epic through medival Europe and Middle East, highly recommended also when it comes out this year. Amin is a master of historical context.

The heros of this book live a love story punctuated by wars, family tragedies and cultural and religious tensions. Most of the background events are the ones that have actually dominated our news for decades, but these folks actually live through it. In the end, their love seems to be the only thing that survives, or is it?

Highly recommended for a relaxing and warm reading that leaves a lasting taste and memory.

The novel is the story of two ill-starred lovers in the Middle East. Ossyane, the principle narrator a muslim Ottoman prince and a hero of the french revolution and his beloved Clara a jew. Ossyane is a name which means `Rebellion' or "Disobedience'. When Ossyane's father gave him that name it represented a protest of an aristocratic but liberal man against history of sectarianism and violence that had characterized the world inherited from his Ottoman ancestors.

Ossyane tells of how he went to France, to become a doctor but instead became an accidental hero. He briefly meets Clara whom he meets again back home after the war. They marry in the after math of WWII; unfortunately the chaotic dislocations that ensure keep them apart for quarter of a century, during which time the prince is unjustly committed to a mental asylum of the insane. The marriage is presented here as an exemplary rejection of suspicion and hatred between people, most particulary in the Middle East.

This is my personal favourite from Maalouf. For those who like his historical research, you will appreciate this Levantine history. For those who like a good novel, you will fall for his love story and for those who look for an eloquent narrator and an excellent writer, you will marvel at his words. This is one of very few books that made me cry!

In Ports of Call, Amin Maalouf tells the story of Ossyane and Clara, two resistance fighters who meet in France during WWII. Although Ossyane is Muslim and Clara is Jewish, they are united against a common enemy. When the war is over and they return to their respective homelands, their love blossoms in spite of the growing tensions that will soon ignite the world around them.

Although Maalouf seems, at first glance, to be illustrating the triumph of love in the face of political enmity - a worthy endeavor, especially in today's dire world -- the story itself is told in a strangely emotionless way. This is because Maalouf creates a third person, a narrator, who happens to meet Ossyane, listens to his life story, and relates it to us in turn. This coincidental meeting reinforces the myriad of tiny coincidences in the story, from Ossyane's entry into the Underground Movement all the way to his escape from his war-torn homeland. In fact, as the story unfolds, Ossyane makes a series of massive life decisions without discerning what the implications of any of those decisions will be. How can he? He is caught up in a world beyond his control.

And I think that is exactly the point that Maalouf is trying to make with this novel. He reminds us that our lives unfold in a series of tiny steps, and that we are rarely given the opportunity to stand back and assess how each step is likely to impact not just ourselves, but those we love. He reminds us that the course of a man or a woman's life, no matter how much he or she may wish to take charge of it, is often in the hands of others, or of God, or of Fate. Ossyane is, in essence, a kind of Everyman, striving to make right choices in a desperately chaotic and increasingly threatening world.

The book is well worth reading, particularly because it gives a brief glimpse of what life was like in the lands bordering the Eastern Mediterranean before they were ravaged by war and terror.

This is the third novel of Amin Maalouf which I have completed, first was Samarkand and second Leo the African , I cannot really rank them may be because there is no comparison and all of them are written in different historical perspectives.
Ports of call is a love story of Ossyane, an ottoman muslim by blood, born in Beirut and Clara a jew both of them meet in France in second world war days at a comrades home and this single meeting becomes a cornerstone for their marriage which takes place much later, they live together for a very brief period and then live for decades with new drawn boundaries between them, to meet again only. I read this novel continuously to complete it but then at last ten pages I left it for one more day because I did not want to finish this beautiful story so quickly.
It is one more very well written novel by Amin Maalouf.

This book revitalised my desire to read novels; for a long while, I thought novel was finished. But, no, not only it is not finished, it is still the best kind of reading. Maalouf manages to bring together all the essential elements: romance, gallantry, betrayal, suspense, surprise, hope, sorrow, pain, joy, you name it. I love reading his work but this one is something else. The scene where the hero meets his daughter in the asylum without actually knowing (but suspecting) who she is is going to make any reader tearful.

When I bought this book I was sure that Amin Maalouf wasn't going to be able to write something as good as "Leo Africanus"; I was wrong!!! Even though these two books are totally different, the author managed to make something brilliant out of a love story.
The author wrote the story in a really simple and exciting way; He permits the reader to imagine everything in a clear and perfect way.

This book was a good portrait of a man.. When I have read Maalouf's books i feel my self like talking to him face to face as in this book....I love his style ..u ought to read this book....

I got to know of Amin Maalouf's work after I read Leo Africanus and Samarkand. I bought Ports of Call as I liked both the books.

Ports of Call is about of life of Ossyane as told by himself to the scribe Amin. The events take place in France during World War II and in Beirut and Haifa during the Arab -Israel war. Ossyane a pacifist does not take sides in any of the wars but his life is deeply impacted by the two wars in different ways. In the first war he gets drawn into the Resistance in France and also meets his future wife. He becomes the revolutionary hero his father, who named him Ossyane meaning rebellion, wanted him to be. In the second war, he is separated from his wife and faces a personal tragedy. It is the war which again liberates him from his internment.

The novel has a simple story and is elegantly crafted with a bitter sweet ending. Though not in the same class as Leo Africanus or Samarkand Ports of Call is a good read.

This is the story of a young Lebanese man, Ossyane, who is born to a Turkish father and Armenian mother near the end of WWI. His father is descended from the Turkish royal family, but they immigrated to Lebanon in the 19th century after Ossyane's grandmother became insane. This story starts at the end an unknown narrator comes across Ossyane as an old man in a street in Paris that is named after a hero of the French resistance. It is clear that Ossyane himself was a hero of the resistance as well and with a bit of persistence the narrator convinces Ossyane to tell his story. This is a novel that starts out absolutely brilliantly, then in my opinion totally collapses in the second half. In the first part of the tale, we learn about Ossyane's relatively, their lives in Turkey and their peregrinations that led them to Lebanon. Ossyane is born during WWI, and as WWII approaches decides to go to France to study medicine. He gets swept up in the War, ultimately becoming a courier for the Resistance. After the war he returns to Lebanon to a hero's welcome and re-encounters a woman that he once met in occupied France, a young Jewish woman named Clara. The two fall in love and get married, but they get divided by the '48 war. Clara is trapped in Haifa, Ossyane in Lebanon. At this point, the novel is outstanding; a love story that brings together two people from hostile groups, a compelling tale of danger in occupied France, and a scathing commentary against racism and tribalism. Beautiful, poignant, I felt like I was holding one of the best novels ever written in my hand - Ma'alouf should have stopped the story here! Without giving too much away, Ossyane spends the second half of the book (and more that 20 years of his life) in a mental institution, having fallen into a grave depression (due the separation from his wife, the death of his father, etc.). Most of the rest of the book is an interior dialogue in which Ossyane describes in great detail his emotions and fractured mental state in the asylum. From my perspective, the story totally collapsed at this point. I just don't find stories about mental illness compelling in any way, and by spending more than half the story describing the main character's mental flights was ruinous. At the end, we learn that Ossyane escaped from the asylum and is in Paris hoping to meet Clara again after 20+ years of separation. If you want to know if they get together, read the book. In spite of the generally positive reviews for this book, I can only ponder about what might have been. Ma'alouf often writes about themes of loneliness and alienation, but using the vehicle of mental illness ruined (for me at least) what could have been one of the greatest novels ever written. That said, the ending is both poignant and deliciously ambiguous and can't help but move you. Bottom line is that this is still a good novel written by one of the best novelists of the current era and I recommend it. A must read of course for any serious Ma'alouf fan of course, but I think it is less than the most enthusiastic reviews suggest.