It's about time....

I talked about a book.

In particular, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I must admit, it's the first book I've read by Louis de Berniéres, but it certainly won't be the last.

Berniéres has a singular ability to convey exactly what he means in a relatively short number of words. He is succinct in a way few people, and even fewer authors, are.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is about a great deal of things. Love, and war, and music, and betrayal are the most general themes. Most books containing those four elements would turn into a pathetic attempt at all four and failing on every count. But for some number of failures, there must be a success--and Berniéres is just that.

By objectively observing the characters he comes into contact with, Berniéres paints a unique portrait of not only the people of the island but of both Greeks and Greece. We come to understand the country, not as a place with lots of old buildings, but as a place that is as just as alive as any of the people who inhabit it. Berniéres makes Greece breathe, and become a legitimate character in the story.

What also makes it such a striking book, in my opinion, is that since we see everyone objectively as they tell their parts of the story and through other's eyes during their bits, we begin to understand them as if they were a part of our daily lives. Because of this, it becomes impossible to pigeon-hole any of them. We are presented with their thoughts, and other's opinions about them, and sometimes the reasoning for them, and their spoken words, and their actions, and if we're very lucky, sometimes their backstory, and with all of this information and the politics, Berniéres leaves it up to the reader to decide who and what everyone is.

m.

Awesome cover courtesy of amazon.com.