Rating: 
Summary: Greek Greatness
Review: This splendid novel is one of my favorite books of all time! It has everything from a Browning-esque monologue by Mussolini to the homoerotic yearnings of an Italian soldier. Stong characters, poetic writing, a suspensful plot makes this book heard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Keep on Trekking
Review: After speaking with friends about this novel I heard the same comment repeatedly...I am having toruble getting through the beginning. Atmittedly slow at times, this novel is truly worth the effort. The characters slowly but surely draw you into their lives and take you on an adventure in war and love.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant
Review: To put it plainly, Corelli's Mandolin is a stunning achievement on many levels. De Bernières has created a set of realistic characters, provided them with exquisite dialogue, and placed them in a setting that's dramatic from a geographic, political, and social point of view. The result is an unforgettable story with both the depth to challenge and the emotion to move. Given this result, it is no surprise that Corelli's Mandolin has received so much praise. Fortunately, the praise is well deserved.
Rating: 
Summary: This Mandolin Needs Tuning
Review: Louis de Bernières' novel Corelli's Mandolin fails to hit many melodic notes in its story of love between an Italian officer and a Greek maiden. Set against Mussolini's occupation of a Greek island and in counterpoint to a 1930's nostalgia for Mediterranean small town life, the story lurches from quixotic anecdotes involving the main characters and supporting cast to unidimensional acts of sacrifice and cruelty.De Bernières spends the first third of the novel switching between first and third person narratives to lay the groundwork for what promises to be a novel of grand ideas played out intimately in the lives of Corelli and the heroine, Pelagia, all with a touch of omnipotent irony. Instead, de Bernières takes these separate threads and fails to weave anything meaningful from them. By the time he has dropped the disjointed first and third person formula for a warmer third person narrative, de Bernières has also set the story on a downward trajectory from which he hints that hope and love may yet triumph. Irony changes to bitterness, and the gravitational velocity forces de Bernières' characters into flatter and flatter beings, so that by the end of the novel they are two-dimensional cutouts responding as any good B-movie actor would. Corelli's Mandolin does offer glimmers of talent. De Bernières' wit takes the dull edges off some chapters. Consequently, portions of the book would have made better short stories. De Bernières also does a notable job of characterization early on, but he lacks the ability to take his two-and-a-half-dimensioned characters and make them whole. Indeed, Corelli, Pelagia, and the cast are flat and predictable by the last pages, and the novel's promised epic story has contracted to the minutia of decay. It seems the ravages of war took their toll not only on the characters but also on de Bernières' storytelling ability.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable..... but far from a classic!
Review: The setting is the Ionic island of Cephallonia, right at the outset of the Second World War. The characters are diversified as human nature: beautiful and romantic Pelagia, wise and honorable Dr. Iannis, charming musically talented Captain Corelli, brave disguised homosexual Carlo Guercio, ignorant and naive Mandras, amongst many others. On the background the novel recounts the Italian occupation of the island, the German invasion, the brutal civil war, and the final change of this placid, loving island into a busy centre of tourism. In the world of books, most often popularity and literary excellency do not run side-by-side. This is certainly the case with "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." Although enjoyable to read, with a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from love at its most sublime and romantic manifestation, to cruelty and barbarity brought about by war, this book has noticeable flaws in its structure and content. As usually happens with fiction novels set against a political and historical background, the interpretation of the latter is subject to criticisms, the author in this case being accused of showing a one-sided version. This seems to be particularly true with respect to the way the author has pictured the partisans/communists indifference and refusal to fight against the occupying forces, be they Italian or German. This issue has brought such indignation amongst survivals of the events and some Greek authorities to the point that Bernieres was compelled to write a new chapter (four years after the first edition) which has been added to the Greek edition (published on the Sunday Times -- 24 May 1998 -- and also available on internet). The author narrates the events at a first-gear speed for the first 300 pages and then abruptly for the last 80 pages he moves to fifth-gear speed, covering two generations in the flip of a page. Such inconsistency not only breaks the rhythm but raises questions as to exactly at what point the novel should have reached its end. Overall, the characters are well portrayed, they tend to neatly represent basic human qualities and frailties. If at any point their behavior seems to be incongruent with their personality, it is the typical case where the author (unfortunately) has "molded" the characters to fit the plot (Captain Corelli's reluctance to approach Pelagia upon his return to Cephallonia). From a positive perspective, the narration remains vivid, lively, and genuinely humorous. It adds to one more novel where romance is victim of the horrors of war and its consequential breakdown of values. If the reader is not to take the historical side or the structural flaws too personally and keep in mind he is in the realm of fiction, then it will be worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: An Predilectorious Jouissance In...
Review: I don't profess to being a genius, but I have a few rules to define what I call a 'good book'. They are: 1. Don't use big words for the sake of using big words - reaching for a dictionary every five minutes does not a good read make.
2. Keep the reader close to the characters through sympathetic language and do not, under any circumstances, use language as a barrier between the reader and the characters.
3. Every word should be there for a reason, be it to further the story, comment upon the narrative, expand our understanding of a concept or character, or highlight a dominant theme - if whole chapters can be removed without detracting from the story or reducing the reader's pleasure and understanding in any way whatsoever, the novel is filled with more than a spattering of excess.
4. If the novel features, for example, Greeks, Italians and Germans, and if you must have foreign dialogue, then translations in the body of the text (rather than non-existent) rarely annoy.
5. Be true to the mood of the story and be consistent, for when a novel that is three-quarters a comedy becomes suddenly and inexplicably depressing for the final quarter, the reader often feels betrayed.
6. Preferably have a dominant character/story so the reader knows why they are reading the book, and don't constantly change this dominant at a moment's notice.
7. When a novel builds to a natural climax, end it, don't plough onwards through the devastating plains of anti-climax, as it makes finishing the novel an evident struggle in both the author and the reader.
8. Don't open end a novel - leaving doors open is fine, but some form of reader satisfaction would be nice.
9. If the novel is tenacious to the point of banality over minute details, don't skip a period of fifteen-odd years in a couple of pages.
10. Less is more - too much information stifles drama. The tension created by placing a man in front of a firing squad will be much more pronounced if you have not already informed the reader that he will survive. So, just a few rules (the full list being far too long to include). But don't get me wrong - the novel does have some plus-points. De Berniere is obviously an intelligent author and rule #11 (don't be predictable), though broken quite blatantly for half the novel, was intermittently respected. If you can't work out from these rules why Captain Corelli's Mandolin received only one star, buy a copy, rack you brains, and try and work out just what all the fuss was about.
Rating:
Summary: If you like happy endings, stay away from this book
Review: I watched the movie and liked it a lot. Then, I read on Amazon that the book was so marvelous to put the movie to shame. There were reviews of people who had approached complete strangers in the fiction section of bookstores "forcing" them to buy it, and so forth. "Wow," I thought, "the book must be a real masterpiece. Also, it has been a national bestseller in England since 1994. It's a must read." So I bought it and read it. Three days later, I was disgusted and shocked. I cold not believe it. The book had systematically destroyed all the (pure and noble) aspects of the movie that I had enjoyed. Before reading it, I thought that the movie was good, if not a masterpiece. After having read it, I strongly reevaluate the movie. Nicolas Cage is miscast and his Italian accent comes and goes, but who cares? The movie is great. The movie rocks. Let me explain. The beauty of the Greek island, so beautifully photographed in the movie that you want to die in such a place, is completely absent in the pages of this celebrated "classic." The incredibly noble and fraternal love that in the movie led Carlo to save Corelli's life is all but fraternal in the book. The courageous and honest Mandras of the movie, the guy who behaves honorably until the very end in spite of his "misfortune,"is depicted in the book as a communist moron that tries to rape his former fiancée. Several ideologies are presented in the book, from agnostic stoicism to communism, from darwinistic nazi-fascism to Greek orthodoxy, but all of them have one thing in common: they despise God, His wisdom and grace in every single occasion possible. There are even two occasions where Carlo and Corelli blaspheme the name of God in Italian. [....] Besides the moral aspect, the most affronting kick to common sense and to the reason why people read novels is the incredibly stupid ending, which does not make sense under more than one angle. First of all, the last hundred pages of the book are indeed an affront to the basic principles of novel composition. [....]After describing the years from 1940 to 1943 in over three hundred and fifty pages, he takes the freeway and describes fifty (50) years in less than eighty pages, with characters about whom we could not care less; they are there just to enrage us the more we realize that the guy is going to end the book in the worst way possible. [....] In conclusion, the reason I still like Hollywood more than the European literary world or the European movie industry is that Europe seems to have lost the concept of stories with strong, moral, noble, and honorable characters, and with happy endings. It seems that the sadder a story, the more people are in awe and excitement. Slimy is beautiful and trendy in Europe. People say it is more realistic (like this book's ending). Realistic? If I want realism, I do not read a novel! I turn my TV on and watch the news. When I read a novel or watch a movie, I want to be inspired by pure and noble sentiments.
"You owe me a life," says Pelagia to Corelli.
"You owe me a week," say I to the author. Three days for reading the book, and the other four for being enraged about my waste of time and emotional involvement with Corelli and Pelagia. I think I will watch the movie again to recover from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag.
Review: I must say my overall rating of this book is lower than I was expecting. Much of the writing is beautiful and poetic, and I appreciated than even in times of extreme hardship and war there is humor. Now for my criticisms, the beginning is slow, even tedious at times, and the ending seemed like a huge cop-out. Are we truly to believe that Corelli, a man of immense passion and committment, would return to Greece several times after the war, watch the love of his life from a distance and not inquire as to whether she was actually married till they were both senior citizens? Ridiculous! If you can get past the beginning, and take the ending with a grain of salt you will enjoy the middle.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic Book
Review: This book will certainly fall into the category of "classic" and appear deservedly on reading lists across the world. De Berniers' command of the naturalistic novel form is striking, particularly given his previous oeuvre, the South American fabula. In both genres, though, de Berniers' hallmark is his ability to depict with great subtlety yet immediacy the intricacies of human relationships, be they amorous or vengeful. His ability to contrast love and hope with the terrible violence that people wreak on one another lies at the heart of his power as a novelist. To this end, he carefully constructs his novels so that a few words are sufficient, in the right place, to strike the reader forcefully and bring the entire novel into focus. Not since Hemingway has a writer so skillfully contrived such emotional effects. Many readers, habituated to the traditional Hollywood "happy ending" will no doubt be dissatisfied with the book's more real-life ending, and apparently the film based on this novel capitulates and renders unto movie-goers that which they wish always to see. For the more astute reader, though, de Berniers' conclusion is resonant both with the past and with the present. We feel keenly the wasted lives, the lost time never to be recaptured, yet still the dying embers give a little heat. Readers who are knowledgable about the Agean, classical Greek and demotic Greek, will enjoy some moments of subtle humor, but the book is richly rewarding even for those whose only language is English, for de Berniers uses this language masterfully to construct not only a world but an entire lifetime within the confines of the printed page.
Rating:
Summary: Lessons Of History
Review: This book should be on a college-level required reading list. It is extremely effective in drawing the reader into the reality of WWII, and how the war affected everyone, including soldier and civilian. My understanding of WWII and its participants has been greatly enriched. I haven't seen the movie, and I can't imagine how it could come anywhere close to expressing the depth of the book, but I look forward to seeing the beautifully described island of Cephalonia and associating faces with the characters.
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