Rating: 
Summary: Adrift in Alexandria
Review: The British novelist Lawrence Durrell seeks to make a stylistic first impression. "Justine," the first volume of his "Alexandria" quartet of novels, exhibits his technique as an almost continuous stream of metaphorical associations as conjured by a writer imaginative with adjectives and in rapturous love with his exotic setting. Comparisons with other world-traveling literary modernists like Henry Miller and Paul Bowles are appropriate, but Durrell is more coherent than the former and more poetic than the latter, ultimately finding an unexplored niche somewhere between the two.Set entirely in the historically and culturally rich coastal Egyptian city in the years preceding World War II, the novel is narrated by an unnamed Irish schoolteacher who keeps company with a colorful array of friends and lovers. The plot is a classic love triangle in which the narrator is having an affair with Justine, the voluptuous wife of his friend Nessim, a wealthy Copt. However, the novel is not as erotic as it could be given this premise; Durrell is much more interested in decorating the personalities of his characters to reveal their desires, fears, and motivations, allowing the characters to massage the plot rather than vice versa. For example, it is with a great amount of narrative preparation that Durrell springs a crucial scene in which one of the main characters, a Greek woman named Melissa who works as a dancer at a night club, approaches Nessim with the news that his wife is being unfaithful to him. The novel has two levels of intrigue. One is that Justine is a woman of dire secrets, searching the city's houses of child prostitution for something dear she has lost and hiding the true nature of her relationship with a rich, lecherous ogre named Capodistria. The second is that of a conspicuous local doctor named Balthazar, one of the narrator's close friends, whose interests are pederasty and the Cabbalah and who is being investigated by an aged Secret Service officer named Scobie assigned to uncover avenues of espionage in Alexandria. Uniting these two threads is an independent, mercurial woman named Clea, friend to both Justine and Scobie, who is not so much introduced as a character as she is suffused throughout the story like a perfume to be sniffed here and there. With an obviously intimate knowledge of Alexandria, Durrell describes the city and its surroundings in stunning detail that avoids the rigid tone of a travel guide, capturing the natural diversity of its population represented by his selection of characters. A cosmopolitan mixture of sophistication and squalor seemingly modeled on Miller's Paris, his Alexandria is virtually an original literary milieu, replete with possibilities for the expanse of British expatriate fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Adrift in Alexandria
Review: The British novelist Lawrence Durrell seeks to make a stylistic first impression. "Justine," the first volume of his "Alexandria" quartet of novels, exhibits his technique as an almost continuous stream of metaphorical associations as conjured by a writer imaginative with adjectives and in rapturous love with his exotic setting. Comparisons with other world-traveling literary modernists like Henry Miller and Paul Bowles are appropriate, but Durrell is more coherent than the former and more poetic than the latter, ultimately finding an unexplored niche somewhere between the two. Set entirely in the historically and culturally rich coastal Egyptian city in the years preceding World War II, the novel is narrated by an unnamed Irish schoolteacher who keeps company with a colorful array of friends and lovers. The plot is a classic love triangle in which the narrator is having an affair with Justine, the voluptuous wife of his friend Nessim, a wealthy Copt. However, the novel is not as erotic as it could be given this premise; Durrell is much more interested in decorating the personalities of his characters to reveal their desires, fears, and motivations, allowing the characters to massage the plot rather than vice versa. For example, it is with a great amount of narrative preparation that Durrell springs a crucial scene in which one of the main characters, a Greek woman named Melissa who works as a dancer at a night club, approaches Nessim with the news that his wife is being unfaithful to him. The novel has two levels of intrigue. One is that Justine is a woman of dire secrets, searching the city's houses of child prostitution for something dear she has lost and hiding the true nature of her relationship with a rich, lecherous ogre named Capodistria. The second is that of a conspicuous local doctor named Balthazar, one of the narrator's close friends, whose interests are pederasty and the Cabbalah and who is being investigated by an aged Secret Service officer named Scobie assigned to uncover avenues of espionage in Alexandria. Uniting these two threads is an independent, mercurial woman named Clea, friend to both Justine and Scobie, who is not so much introduced as a character as she is suffused throughout the story like a perfume to be sniffed here and there. With an obviously intimate knowledge of Alexandria, Durrell describes the city and its surroundings in stunning detail that avoids the rigid tone of a travel guide, capturing the natural diversity of its population represented by his selection of characters. A cosmopolitan mixture of sophistication and squalor seemingly modeled on Miller's Paris, his Alexandria is virtually an original literary milieu, replete with possibilities for the expanse of British expatriate fiction.
Rating:
Summary: haunting, beautiful, and thought provoking
Review: The descriptions of place, in colors and lights, make me want to paint the beauty. The symbolism and literary devices are like plums to pick from a tree. Lush and rich. Although the plot of the story stages around Justine and Darley's love, the ideas put forth are always bringing questions to my mind. For example, I have asked myself repeatedly, what qualities in a human cause them to be so loved by so many? It does not necessarily seem to be strength of character, loyalty, or beauty that entrances and seduces. What is it in Justine that is so enticing? The book is stimulating and entertaining, but not on a level based on plot. This ought to be required reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Seductive and lovely in parts
Review: There are times when reading Justine that I thought I'd discovered my new favorite writer. It didn't last though. Durrell astonishes at times with his wonderful use of language, but in Justine, I felt it was uneven. I intend to read the others in the series but this one didn't compel me to rush out and buy Balthazar. It's certainly worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretentious Eyewash
Review: This is truly a dreadful, dreadful novel. I am aghast (but not really surprised) that some critics actually think this is one of the great books of the last century. That is a joke. This may be fare for an English grad working on his Ph.D. in "Obscure Writing in Literature" but I think the average reader of novels won't waste her time on this pretentious eyewash. In the first 30 pages of "Justine" the only action that occurs is that the characters share a tin of olives in a bookstore. So forget your plot. Poetic descriptions of Alexandria fly at the reader like snowflakes in a blizzard, one after another, each flowery and beautiful, but not building on a whole, so that the reader is overwhelmed and left with no strong feeling for the city, only vague notions. What is the benefit of that? It is the job of the writer to convey impressions, not befuddle the reader. I think Durrell is a lazy writer, billiant possibly but undisciplined. The narrator of the story (if you can call this a story) similarly drones on and on with recollections of other characters from his past but in fragments, jumping from one to another character, so that, again, no tangible or even interesting impression of a subject can be built by the reader. Reading "Justine" is like eating cotton candy: all sweet and pretty pink and airy nothingness. This is considered great writing by critics, to slog through literary muck. If you want to impress your literary buddies at the next soiree, buy and read "Justine" and then, sipping your chardonnay and nibbling on you brie, you can offer, "I'm reading The Alexandria Quartet. Lovely writing, don't you think?" But, if you want a readable, entertaining, unpretentious novel, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: The Bigguns Have Come
Review: When I say bigguns, I really mean "pretty words" and/or "incredible writing". So, whassup how's it going? No, but really... this book had me at hello. No matter how cliche that sounds. The strangest part about it was that it actually said "Hello!" to me. At first, I was afraid, and I hurled the book away in terror. But then, I thought, "Hey, I'm cool! That book's cool, we can chill together." And we did. Here's the thing: Lawrence Durrell is very good at making dusty egyptian scenes and writing angst-filled woeful monologues about the women who are incapable of deeper love. The titles of his books are deceiving in that they, with "Justine", "Balthazar", and so on, appear to be about those people. However, Justine plays about as big of a role in "Justine" as she does in "Balthazar". This book is one of four of the "Alexandria Quartet". It is about the city through the eyes of the narrator, which is a stunning and whirlwinding ride, but don't be disappointed for not getting to know the characters better. Love it for what it is.
Rating:
Summary: The Bigguns Have Come
Review: When I say bigguns, I really mean "pretty words" and/or "incredible writing". So, whassup how's it going? No, but really... this book had me at hello. No matter how cliche that sounds. The strangest part about it was that it actually said "Hello!" to me. At first, I was afraid, and I hurled the book away in terror. But then, I thought, "Hey, I'm cool! That book's cool, we can chill together." And we did. Here's the thing: Lawrence Durrell is very good at making dusty egyptian scenes and writing angst-filled woeful monologues about the women who are incapable of deeper love. The titles of his books are deceiving in that they, with "Justine", "Balthazar", and so on, appear to be about those people. However, Justine plays about as big of a role in "Justine" as she does in "Balthazar". This book is one of four of the "Alexandria Quartet". It is about the city through the eyes of the narrator, which is a stunning and whirlwinding ride, but don't be disappointed for not getting to know the characters better. Love it for what it is.
Rating:
Summary: The Bigguns Have Come
Review: When I say bigguns, I really mean "pretty words" and/or "incredible writing". So, whassup how's it going? No, but really... this book had me at hello. No matter how cliche that sounds. The strangest part about it was that it actually said "Hello!" to me. At first, I was afraid, and I hurled the book away in terror. But then, I thought, "Hey, I'm cool! That book's cool, we can chill together." And we did. Here's the thing: Lawrence Durrell is very good at making dusty egyptian scenes and writing angst-filled woeful monologues about the women who are incapable of deeper love. The titles of his books are deceiving in that they, with "Justine", "Balthazar", and so on, appear to be about those people. However, Justine plays about as big of a role in "Justine" as she does in "Balthazar". This book is one of four of the "Alexandria Quartet". It is about the city through the eyes of the narrator, which is a stunning and whirlwinding ride, but don't be disappointed for not getting to know the characters better. Love it for what it is.
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