eight months later... the return of the Alexandria Quartet!

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I decided to finish Clea (final book in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet) instead of Anathem. Hard to discuss this series without giving away key plot points but I will try.

Justine: See previous post.

Comments

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Darley's smugness in the last book was so palpable, it practically vibrated off the page. XD; Although maybe that's unfair - if he realized that he'd never have the inner depths of say a Pursewarden - well, who does? So if he then decided not torture himself trying to be an Artist (yes, with a capital A) anymore and to try to find happiness elsewhere (in his relationship with Clea), who can blame him? Keats did the same thing and he didn't even read Pursewarden's real masterpieces.

Except Darley sinks almost totally into mediocrity - as Clea says, he doesn't even read anymore, and he doesn't have Keats' excuse of pursuing a career, either, since he's just got that dead-end clerk's job. So now he's still hanging out with interesting people, except that he is no longer trying to be one of them, which means he's just sponging off their energy. No wonder Clea was unhappy in that relationship.

Mountolive doesn't have an inner life, but he has an outer one! It's when you have neither that you're in trouble. XD; I really liked his relationship with Leila. There's something so appealing about it. Imagine if you had a Leila - an amazing brilliant person hidden away from the world who did all your artistic growth for you, like your own personal secret weapon, making you look brilliant. And in return, all you have to do is write back long letters about Russian ballerinas.

It was the mysticism parts of Mountolive that really appealed to me. Narouz in the dessert, the sage at the carnival. Getting at the heart of things. I think this is where you can really tell that Durley/Durell is from the British isles - he's got a fascination with these things seems to come from a culture that has done away with public/communal expressions of deep spirituality.

Hm, hope that made sense, bit short on sleep today!

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It's sort of interesting to read from the perspective of a wannabe who knows he's a wannabe!

I also thought Mountolive's relationship with Leila was so interesting, too - it was immensely enriching for them both, but at the same time, it *did* sort of dig Leila deeper into her solitude.

Well, the thing is, Durrell spent so many years living in India and Greece and so on - I could be wrong, but I think the majority of his young life was spent outside of England. I interpreted it more as describing the thing he'd probably seen himself, you know? He seems like the sort of person who finds such rituals fascinating but doesn't involve himself in them. Not sure!

I'll post more when I'm not at work XD

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Outside of England, but within a very tight-knit family that carried the culture with them? Certainly Gerald thought he was a total weirdo lol.

Yeah, I got the sense that Leila could have been an immense power - remember how much respect Balthazar had for her as a scholar? - but her energies went into maintaining that link with David. The way she would carefully center her investigations into wherever he happened to be stationed. On the one hand it was good that she had that (movable) link to the outside world, on the other imagine what she could have discovered if she'd let her own interests decide the direction of her research. She had that network of scholars she was in touch with, but...

Darley is such a wannabe! XD It's interesting because you repeatedly ask yourself why any of them bother with him at all. What does Melissa see in him? Justine? Why does Balthazar provide him with so many witty quotable remarks? Just because he knows Justine? Is it the same for Clea? Did he basically just luck out? Pombal and Scobie were the kind of huge personalities that are friendly with everyone, and we know what Pursewarden thinks of him, so no surprises there. Are there maybe just not enough people in Alexandria with the intelligence/education/free time to keep up with them?