Corelli's Mandolin

Rating:
Summary: Hard to start, hard to finish
Review: This book was thrust at me with the words "You'll love it!" The beginning pages were tedious, but as soon as the village strong man shows up, things start to roll nicely. The characters are beautifully drawn and frequently hilarious, and the heart pangs of Pelagia are as real as they are painful to experience. The book takes us up higher and higher, delighting in the beauty of Greece, the wackiness of the people, and the love story unfolding. Then war intrudes in all its ugly ways, and we are utterly dashed. Such a high and low is rarely achieved in a book, and this is its true accomplishment. The ending feels wrong, somehow, not true to life. But the book leaves us smiling, and that's OK, too. The bottom line: not a masterpiece, but far superior to most books you'll read this year.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the book, but the ending was not what I had in mind!
Review: Travel to Greece has never been at the top of my list, but I've changed my mind. The lyrical quality of De Bernieres' writing really formed a visual landscape in my mind. Now I need to see it for myself! I loved the book, right up until the last chapter. What a disappointment! I know things are always rosy, but still! Even so, I'll recommend it to friends.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating, heart-wrenching, intellectually rich tale
Review: Corelli's Mandolin is a captivating, heart-wrenching and intellectually rich tale which immerses the reader into ancient Greek history and mythology and into the horrific events comprising World War Two. DeBernieres has a fantastic command of the English language,which at times can be a bit tedious, especially during the first thirty pages. Once the reader is immersed in the story, however,there is no putting the book down. The author interchangably plunges the reader into the joy and foibles of the human condition and into the deep abyss of despair.

Rating:
Summary: A very good read, but wildly over-rated
Review: I enjoyed this book and found some of the chapters in the latter half very tense and moving, but overall the book is is 100-150 pages too long. With a better editor it could have been a great book. It takes far too long to get going (I know a couple of people who gave up after less than 150 pages - this is understandable, but a shame as there is a lot to admire and enjoy later on). The long epilogue is terrible: skip it - it detracts from the rest of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully romantic, beautifully written
Review: This book took some time to click for me. But once I "got into it," I simply could not put it down! Humour, romance, history, tragedy, well-conceived characters, all in one wonderfully written novel. Once I met Captain Corelli, I was hooked. Stay with this one. It is well worth it! Simply wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: I'll never trust a bookcover blurb again. The characterization and plot of this book, not to mention the dialogue, suggest the musings of a ten-year old. This book totally disappointed me. And even if you like the first 400 pages, skip the last hundred, because they're worse.

Rating:
Summary: touching and beautiful
Review: I read this in the British edition entitled 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' and found it so magical, it toppled my all-time favourite book of Anna Karenina. If you haven't read this yet, hurry up and do so!! It is so moving, witty, tragic and well-written.

Rating:
Summary: Magical Realism on a Greek Isle
Review: The book combines the beauty and humor of Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits and the cruelty, too. I haven't enjoyed a book as much as this one in a very long time. The unhappy ending seemed a little forced, however. Not that a completely happy ending in view of what everyone suffered would have struck the right note either. But the explanation of Corelli's seeing her with a baby and spying on her for almost 50 years just doesn't completely ring true. The relationship between Pelagia and her father is almost the best thing in the book. The doctor is an unforgettable character.

Rating:
Summary: Love that lasts forever, and knows how to wait.
Review: A dear friend gave me her copy of the book to read. I started, and was fascinated by the story, and by the way the author uses different narrators and different voices to tell it. The story is fantastically written from beginning to end. I especially loved the idea which is included at the end, of prudence and patience, and enduring love. The love between Pelagia and Corelli was forever lasting, and no matter how much he felt for her, he knew he had no right to get suddenly back into her life. He knew that to have her, he would have to wait for the right time, even if the chance of it coming was far from possible. However, he waited, and she waited too. This I found most romantic, and was probably what I liked the most about the book.

Rating:
Summary: A glowing testament to the power of love--and of music
Review: Seldom have I read a book which so vividly portrays the best and worst in our common humanity. Acts of brutality and of stunning self-sacrifice and heroism are closely juxtaposed, sometimes on the same page, so that the reader is shaken to the core. As many other readers have done, I cried real tears several times throughout this book--once at a Caribou Coffee shop here in the Twin Cities, which was rather embarrassing! As a passionate devotee of music and especially opera, I was struck by the book's use of music to portray the positive aspects of humanity. At many points, De Bernieres (and Corelli himself, as befits a true son of Italy) employ music to make the unbearable bearable. Corelli's opera club, La Scala, allows his men to cope with the demeaning lack of privacy of the communal latrines. Corelli's mandolin itself, which he calls Antonia, is his alter ego and a perfect expression of his warm, generous personality. And what could be more appropriate than the Italian soldiers' singing of the poignant Humming Chorus from Madama Butterfly as they travel to their deaths? The image (and sound) of these doomed young men comforting themselves and each other by humming the beautiful, almost lullaby-like, melody will stay with me for a long time. For me, the book's message is that the best of our human nature--love, friendship, music, and joy--endures forever and transcends the evil that the worst of our human nature can perpetrate.