Rating: 
Summary: An overwhelmingly beautiful novel
Review: I bought this book because I am a high school basketball coach (I'm only 17) and I had read that Phil Jackson told Kobe Bryant to read it before the 2000-2001 basketball season. Jackson aimed to inspire Bryant with this novel, and we all know that Kobe Bryant's team, the L.A. Lakers, coached by Jackson, won the NBA championship for the second year in a row. Inspire Kobe? Hell, he won a championship. So needless to say, I read this novel out of curiosity. I was floored by this romantic and seemingly innocent novel. The passion and flare in which this book was written is remarkable, and I found myself extremely involved with the characters and their stories. The human spirit is an amazing thing, and the actions expressed by characters in this novel are touching and thought-provoking. I was amazed by how powerful this novel is and how deep I, as the reader, became involved in it. From the first page, I grabbed a highlighter and lit up entire pages of this beautiful novel. This is an awesome book, and anyone who enjoys reading into human nature and why people do the things they do, this is a perfect book. One of my all time favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but ending is lame
Review: I won't repeat many of the good things other reviewers have said. Great characters, good history, tragedies of war etc. What I will say is that the ending must have been written by someone else. It came straight from daytime TV or Three's Company--a misunderstanding that leads to personal tragedy could have VERY easily been avoided. Given the fact that Corelli's character was so gregarious and open minded for 90% of the book, the ending doesn't fit. Also, there are three or four chapters early in the book that have absolutely no bearing later on.
Rating:
Summary: Where's Cephalonia?
Review: For those of us who think we know all about World War II, this book give insight into a segment that got little notice during the 1940"s. A Greek island that seemed to be of little importance to the Allies eventually got more than its share of desecration and hardship. Still, at the beginning of this period, the Greeks, the Italians and the Germans found like interests to connect them. All this is background for a poignant love story set in a changing world. It's hard to put this one down. De Bernieres must have done an incredible amount of research into the history, myths and customs of this island in order to write so well. Sure, I wish that the ending weren't quite so...pat...or that the main male character had done a bit more investigating of the situation when he first returned....but that's life.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly enjoyable
Review: Love, the atrocities of war and the transformation necessary to survive war. De Bernieres' place descriptions are wonderful. You feel as if you are in the town with the cast of characters. Have an Italian and Greek dictionary handy and brush up on your Greek mythology and tragedies.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Historical References & a Love Story
Review: This book was definately thought provoking. It made a historical story about WWII interesting by giving it a personal story of love btwn an Italian soldier and and Greek women. It showed how barbaric war is and how barbaric the Germans, Greeks and Italians were during WWII. I would read it again if I had to do it all over again.
Rating:
Summary: wonderfully written, hard to put down
Review: This is the first novel by de Bernieres that I have read. It was impossible, if not heartbreaking, to put this book down. Since I am not completely familiar with the history and geography of the area, I was relieved that the novel is not intimidating. The author's descriptions are so beautiful that it is easy to imagine the location. His style is very natural and pleasant to read. Very satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Only the most stoic of readers would remain unmoved.
Review: Captain Corelli's Mandolin must be very nearly the most well-written story I have ever read. I have compulsively read whole passages of it to people. The way Louis de Bernieres describes everything, from the mundane to the heartstoppingly tragic, to the little quirky joys of life, captivates. It's all very real-- you see, smell, hear and taste everything in his Cephallonia. You know his characters intimately. You are there. Only the most stoic would not experience profound emotional reactions when reading it. Each time it is put down (if that is at all possible voluntarily), there is a feeling of satisfaction, like those fleeting moments following a very, very good kiss which is each time different from the last. (But, a word to the wise: watch the film BEFORE reading the book, because the former, while breathtaking on its own, is merely a trailer for the book.)
Rating:
Summary: I am in awe
Review: I am in awe of Mr. De Bernieres writing. There is a great deal of genius in this writer. It is the kind of book where the reader does not want to miss a word. The characters are extraordinary and well developed. I was so disappointed when I was finished with the book. I wanted it to go on forever. Some of the prose is so beautiful that I want to go back and yellow line it. I am going to order his other books. I cannot understand why this is such a best seller in England and not here. I guess when the movie comes out, everyone will read it. I am looking forward to the movie and hope they dont ruin a wonderful story with wonderful characters. I looked up the film on the internet and the casting is wonderful. The only thing I did not like about the book is that it ended abruptly and left the reader to fill in the obvious ending. I would have preferred it in the authors words rather than in my imagination. Easily the best book I have read this year and in many years.
Rating:
Summary: An Unbelievably Fresh and Impressive Telling of an Old Tale
Review: Deep down this is--let's face it--a pretty traditional, even orthodox premise, a story of forbidden love with some other incidents around it. But de Bernieres' first gift is that he is able to tell the tale in such an inventive and unorthdox way. His second gift, a more important one, is an attention to detail so great that it turns a love story into a sweeping epic. "Corelli's Mandolin" has impressed me more than any book I've read in the last six months. The outset of the novel is disarming, as the chapters shift perspective faster than a spinning camera. Without blatantly identifying the narrators of these chapters, de Bernieres still offers enough to hook the reader, and ultimately enough to alert us to the identity of the speaker, whether it be a gay Italian soldier of Herculean size and strength or an aging Greek physician writing his island's long history. As these characters begin to reappear with a certain degree of frequency, we become familiar with their voices and their worlds, and the narrative acquires a rhythm that it retains and on which it builds for the rest of the novel. My one criticism is small and applies only to a few moments of the novel. De Bernieres seems occasionally not to have the greatest faith in the intelligence and attention of his readers, and he goes a little further to explain things than he need go. Carlo's and Francesco's assault on their own Italian soldiers while wearing Greek uniforms is clearly an attempt at military provocation, a justification for an Italian invasion of Greece. There's no need here for de Bernieres to have Francesco say, "It looks as though some stupid bastard wants to provoke a little war with Greece." Those are tiny islets of attenuated subtlety, though, in what is otherwise a wonderfully understated narration. De Bernieres has an ear sympathetic to all sorts of human hearts, and this allows him to flesh out even the most disparate and typically instantly unlikable characters (like a Nazi officer, for example). When reading "Corelli's Mandolin," I found myself wincing at the more wrongheaded choices made by some characters. It is a testament to the author's strength, however, that I winced not because the choice made was wrong, but rather because I knew that the character making the wrong choice was capable of so much more, and so much better. De Bernieres' novel is a patient one that starts subtly and gains momentum with each page. It is also a novel of intense emotional highs and lows, every one of them well-earned. It's been a long time since I balked at finishing a book simply because I didn't want it to end, but "Corelli's Mandolin" is that kind of book.
Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet and hard to put down-- a perfect summer read
Review: I don't think it's possible to write a review of this book without using the word 'multilayered'. There's so much going on here, and so little of it is boring. It runs from the Italian occupation of Greece, to Pelagia's loves, to the History of Dr. Iannis, to the confessions of Carlo Piero Guercio. There are countless twists and turns and more narrative threads than could possible be addressed in a brief review. All these tiny pieces are swept together into a nuanced whole by the catastrophic events around World War II. I laughed out loud in several places, and in several more I felt like crying. The humor saves the book from melodrama, and the sadness saves it from making WWII into something less bleak than it was. The writing style is splendid and the characters well-drawn. _Corelli's Mandolin_ goes to the top of my gift list for 2001.
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