Alexandria Quartet 2

I am still working my way through The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. I should finish it by the weekend. As you might expect from such a long novel, the quality is uneven (exceptional in parts, plodding in other parts).

"...his character was as thin as a single skin of gold leaf - the veneer of culture which diplomats acquire..."

"God's real and subtle nature must be clear of distinctions: a glass of spring-water, tasteless, odourless, merely refreshing - and surely its appeal would be to the few, the very few, real contemplatives?"

"...his carefully graduated cocktail parties into which he occasionally introduced guests from the humbler spheres of life like prostitution or the arts."



Above: I was at an outdoor cafe recently, and a character at a nearby table seemed familiar, although I did not know him. There was something about the way he was simultaneously doing deals over his phone, ordering coffee, greeting people walking by. Then I realised this was how I imagined Nessim Hosnani from The Alexandria Quartet.



Above: one of the themes of the book is Jemais de la vie (Not in this life). The name of Justine's perfume, the title of a persistent popular song, the theme of the recurring love affairs etc. I wondered whether there might actually have been a popular song in Egypt in the 1930s and I found this on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIk-Y8zOHN8 (2789).