Balthazar

by Lawrence Durrell

Series: Alexandria Quartet (2)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Conversations
590	4	7,700	(3.85)	14

Work details

Book details

Title	Balthazar
Author	Lawrence Durrell
Rating
Tags	literature, alexandria
Collections	Your library
Your review	The follow-ups to Justine claim not to move through time, but space. Though the "frame" of this novel occurs after that of Justine, it actually covers the same period of time-- in fact, it probably even starts earlier. The conceit is that one of the other characters involved in the events these books depict, the eponymous Balthazar, has read the story we know as Justine, and he's given the still-anonymous narrator a set of notes explaining what really happened. The narrator then writes this up into a new story, adding in some information of his own that he'd previously thought irrelevant, but is now significant in light of what Balthazar told him. It's an interesting conceit, and the new revelations certainly do create a whole new perspective on the events of Justine... but I found myself somewhat unmoved. I might be interested in what's going on... but I'm not involved. Still, I enjoyed it. The main question of the novel is once again one of love and identity and character. Can we ever really know anyone? The conclusion of the narrator at the end of this book would seem to be "no"-- so much of what he thought he knew of Justine, of Melissa, of Balthazar, of Nessim has turned out to be wrong. Which raises the question: how sure can we be of what Balthazar says he knows? I suspect I'll find out in the next volume.
Other authors*
Publication	Penguin (Non-Classics) (1991), Paperback, 256 pages
Publication date	1991
ISBN	0140153217 / 9780140153217
LC classification 1	PR6007.U76B35
Dewey 1	823/.912 20
Subjects	Alexandria (Egypt) › Fiction Friendship › Fiction Illegal arms transfers › Fiction Love stories Married women › Fiction
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired	2007-05-01
Date started
Date finished	2008-06-01
Summary 0	Balthasar (Alexandria Quartet) by Lawrence Durrell (1991)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	Amazon.com

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