A review by lzad
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

5.0

I'm absolutely not sure who I would recommend this quartet to. It's one of my favourites but it's not user friendly and you have to work at it, but who want to work at reading book (especially if there isn't a test at the end!). I knew absolutely nothing about this book when I first started, so often wondering during Book one, why I was doing this to myself. It's not immediately captivating (I'm not selling this very well at all, am I?). But I kept going after Book one, mostly because I didn't have any other books at the time. My initial trouble was that it was a bit dated for me and the characters were too melancholy and far to self-absorbed for me to care much. But Alexandria, the city, was a fascinating character, so I read on.

And I'm so glad I did, because as I churned through Book two I suddenly got it and that was it for me for the next few days. Thundered on through Books three and four and sat there in stunned silence when I finished.

I really don't want to tell you why it's so clever because I'd love you to find out for yourself. It's a very slow burn but then literally everything gets set on fire.

Sorry if you want a review with plot details, and character analysis but this Quartet is more of an overall experience. At least it was that way for me. And such a good one, I did it again :-)