Rating: 
Summary: Read other books
Review: This book is a disappointment. The author chooses a good location, takes a rich canvas, writes well, but nevertheless falls short of writing a good novel. One of the main problems is that the protagonists are not credible as characters. They are not morally complex and consequently they are not interesting. You might as well find these characters in comic strips, such as Tintin. Nice people, certainly, most of them; some of them even endearing, but flat, generic material: the good widower father, helpful doctor to the islanders; his beautiful, clever daughter; the cheeky family goat; the funny, charming Italian officer with his mandolin; various eccentric villagers; the ancient-Greek-speaking behind-the-lines English officer; the good awkward (...), and so on. As if realizing this weakness, the author tries to compensate by being modern and explicit: the beautiful daughter reproaches herself for her "sluttish thoughts", Captain Corelli's opera choir practices in the latrine, and so on. The story ends in a brutal massacre of Italian soldiers by their former German allies. However, this won't do. The entire setting, reuniting old lovers eventually, is a smug little story, potentially even an abuse of historical background to manufacture the type of love story that will have housewives break into tears while reading on their beach holiday. One can read the book, and even enjoy it in its good parts. But one simply cannot believe it. The problem is, as many of the reviews at Amazon show, that unfortunately many people actually find this type of writing credible. We do not really need such books at all. Readers who want to have a profound approach to the issues addressed in this novel should turn to (...)(and quite a few others) instead.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book
Review: This is one of the finest books of the last decade - if not the millenium. A reader will laugh out loud one chapter and be in tears the next. It is a love story that endures the tragedies of the second world war and subsequent Greek civil war. Sited on the Greek island of Cephalonica, the author points a sympathetic eye towards the Italians forced to war, and an unsympathetic eye towards the Germans and communist Greeks. It is a viewpoint still held by many Greeks who lived through the era. The characters - both main and ancillary are rich and unforgettable. The image of the elderly lovers riding into the sunset will stay with the reader always. A truly wonderful book! I do not see how a movie could live up to images and character depictions deBerniere's brings to this novel. A word of caution to those who may have read this author's other books. Corelli's Mandolin is nothing like his South AMerican fantasy trilogy - it is much better. I highly recommend this book. It is humorous and poignant with a touch of historical fiction thrown in for good measure.
Rating:
Summary: The Horrors and Idiocy of World War II
Review: This remarkable book brilliantly captures both the horrors and idiocy of the Second World War without leaving the confines of the small Greek island of Cephalonia. De Bernieres obviously loves his characters, and consequently so does the reader. The book swings from rich humor to abject misery effectively, and the love story between Pelagia, a Greek woman, and Antonio, an officer of the Italian army that is occupying the island, is real and touching. Their love is an antidote to the barbarity closing in around them. The secondary characters also come to life, and Mussolini's monologues, interspersed among the chapters, are a brilliant commentary on megalomania. The descriptions of life in the village on Cephalonia are both funny and moving, the battle scenes are horrifying, and the indecision of the Italian army's brass is so stupefying it still makes you angry sixty years later. I was surprised that the book went beyond the war years right up to the `90s, a touch I had mixed feelings about. But overall I thought the book a modern classic. Too bad the movie wasn't up to the standards of the book.
Rating:
Summary: let it have an effect on you
Review: When I finished this book, I threw it across the room at the wall--I was that mad at the ending. I am still thinking about it half a year later, how unexpected it was. With time I have realized that this merely fits into De Bernieres's tragic-comic style, and that to end this happily would have fit none too well into the traditional plot of the novel. In retrospect it just makes me like this book even more. World War II serves as the backdrop for Corelli's Mandolin, though the novel's plot is more fate-driven. Much like the Italian movies that concern the often farcic Italian occupation of Greece such as Mediterraneo, the Italians soldiers stationed on the island are portrayed as reluctant visitors. They spend their days with prostitutes, gambling, and outraging the natives. A romance develops between Captain Corelli, an Italian musician, and Pelagia, the daughter of the island's doctor who also happens to speak Italian. Woven in between the skeins of their love story are vignettes from the front lines, from a homosexual soldier who loves his captain and from Pelagia's betrothed. I loved the characters in this book. I loved the lightness of idyllic island life in contrast to the brutal scenes of war. I loved experiencing the subtle but inevitable coming together of the two lovers. And beyond the plot and setting, I would rate the author's language use as among the best I have ever come across. Also made into an unremarkable movie.
Rating:
Summary: Crosses every genre
Review: Wow, what a tour de force. Corelli's Mandolin is history, romance, mystery, tragedy, comedy, literature, a war story, odyssey, yada-yada. Read it; you won't regret it. Just don't make the mistake of seeing the movie; it's the worst piece of miscasting of Nicholas Cage you can imagine. Once you've read the book, you'll know what I mean.
Set on the Greek island of Cephalonia, the story begins in the early days of WWII before Mussolini's invasion. The 'heroine' Pelagia, daughter of the island's doctor, is being taught the healing arts by her father. Then comes the invasion, and Corelli, the Italian commanding officer who takes a cynical view of war (says Heil Puccini instead of Heil Hitler and has his troops singing opera at every opportunity), is quartered in the doctor's house. An affair ensures, but the ugliness of war affects them, as it does everyone else.
To say more would be to say too much, for remember: it's a bit of a mystery.
Louis de Bernieres's other novels soar off into magical realism, but Corelli's Mandolin is grounded in reality, showing, as it does, the nature of war from many different perspectives.
Highest recommendation.
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