Captain Corelli's Mandolin

My one hack of a cough (pun intended) has regressed into a sore throat of rather mortifying proportions – it leaves me hot, scratchy (the throat I mean) and very much sounding like an grating piece of steel.

Never mind – I took the day off from work yesterday and did nothing the whole day except sleep and read. In between naps, I finished Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

Title: Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Author: Louis de Bernieres
ISBN: 9780749397548

How was the book? The most suitable word I can think of to describe my whole reading experience is “beautiful”. I have to thank Lisa for giving me this really superb book – and yes, you’re right. I do think it’s one of the best ever books that I have read.

First impressions:
Not too good. I thought the book somewhat pretentious because of its frequent use of big words, which made me very irritable – simply because I wanted to know what exactly the word meant, and so I found myself reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin with the aid of my Oxford dictionary. (At this point, I started dreaming of an electronic Oxford whereby I’d yell the word into the device and the e-dictionary would announce the meaning to me.)

Grumpy Grace: Bloody book needs to be read side-by-side with a dictionary.
Laidback Lisa: Chill laaaaa…why must you be so OCD? After all, you can roughly guess what the meaning is.

Being OCD

So I tried again. I reread the whole book from the first page and forced myself NOT to look up the dictionary. To my surprise, I found myself liking the book, and I started to get really hooked onto it. No matter how late it was, I would read at least a chapter before bed because I really had to know what was going to happen next.

The one word to describe Louis de Bernierres’ style of writing is “deliberate”. He ensures that the reader engages with each character in depth until you are able to feel what the character feels irrespective of whether he is the protagonist or antagonist. The book is so good that you just feel yourself wanting more of it.

I can’t describe to you the feeling: but perhaps you could imagine that it is like eating a piece of Lindt truffle. First you place the truffle in your mouth, where it s-l-o-w-l-y melts, and you have to restrain yourself from biting into it. If you really discipline yourself by allowing it to MELT, you’ll find that your tongue is teased by the richness of the milk chocolate and that your senses are infinitely aware of each goodness of that truffle – the smoothness of the chocolate, then the slightly stronger taste of the milk (and here you will note that the milk is different from the usual milk taste) and at the end, the very very very slightly sour taste of the last vestiges of chocolate as it slips down your throat. And before you know it, you've popped yet another Lindt truffle into your mouth. And another one. And another one. And another one.

(No, I can’t draw a comparison with sex because sex ends with a climax whereas reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin ends with a feel-good feeling, the type you get when you eat Lindt truffles, not earth-shattering, but very comfortable and soothing. Plus I'm not too sure if you can immediately do it over and over and over again. Hehehe.)

What I really really really liked about Captain Corelli’s Mandolin:

Colourful Characters
Real-life drama is what you get in this book. There are gays, fascists, dictators, intellectuals, communists, atheists, simple-minded villagers, forward-thinking parents, typical guy-egos, Pharisee priests, maternal figures and even mischievous animals! Like I mentioned, you’re drawn into each character so well, that you truly realise at the end of the book, that there is no clear ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, ‘bad’ or ‘good’.

Old-Fashioned
There’s a guy and there’s a girl, but they make love the Mills & Boon style. Not sex. So sweet, isn’t it? And did I mention the good old values: valour, honour, integrity?

Stereotypes
The guy is handsome and the girl is pretty. But at the end of the day when they’ve lost their looks to the ravages of war and later on, old age, they’re still in love! <3 style="font-weight: bold;">

Insidious Marketing
Louis de Bernieres draws you into Cephallonia and the Grecian way of life so well that I now feel so compelled to visit Cephallonia and be acquainted with the land of the legendary heroes of old!

Cephallonia calls..sigh... (image taken from Wikipedia)

History
The elements of history are interwoven so well into the storyline that they do not seem at all tedious or didactic. In fact, Louis de Bernieres uses it to enhance the storyline so well that makes the whole reading experience so very worthwhile.

*****

If you love reading, get this book! If you know someone who loves reading, get this book for them!