Chicks On Lit discussion
This topic is about
Corelli’s Mandolin
Archive 08-19 BR & Challenges
>
Captain Corelli's Mandolin buddy read
date
newest »
newest »
I take it you got to the chapter where Carlo makes his great act of self-sacrifice?I am not sure where you are in the history. Italy shifts allegiance from the Axis to the Allies. The US is able to enter Italy at that point to try to push back the Germans now that Italy is on our side. That causes huge problems for the Italians in Greece which is also occupied by Germans. No longer are they fighting on the same side, but now they are enemies. So Germany begins to round up and execute the Italian soldiers occupying Greece. They make some promises to evacuate their former partner, but when the Italian soldiers try to make their way out to the German boats to evacuate, they are gunned down, a total ambush. Others are simply rounded up and executed. When they do manage to evacuate to a boat, Allied forces bomb the boat and the Italian soldiers are killed again. Basically, the situation with Italy's change of allegiance has left those occupying Greece as sitting ducks. The Greek civilians are caught between multiple fighting forces. The Germans are attacking them because they have been on the side of the Allies. But, the Monarchists and the Communists are also fighting for control of Greece. Civilians are not permitted to be nutral. If they refuse to assist whoever demands food or shelter or medical care from them, they are presumed to be aligned with the other side. If they do provide services, even if under force or if confiscated, they are accused of being in alliance. Either way, they are guilty of being on the wrong side. So, not only are Germans killing Greek civilians, but so are the Monarchists and Communists. And the British and Americans are no where to be found. Greece is not significant enough of a battle field for resources to go there. At least, that is my take on the situation. Prior to this book, I knew nothing about Greece in WWII. In fact, if I were asked, I would have assumed that they were not involved.
I did. I also got to Corelli leaving the island. I'm going to read more now, but it's probably too late for me to finish. Sheesh, talk about a no-win situation! I also had no idea what was happening in Greece at this time in history.
I didn't quite manage to finish last night, how I wanted to! I did get to Mandras' return and death. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It was clear he was being brainwashed and corrupted by the Communists, but after not having seen him for 100+ pages, it felt anticlimactic. I also don't know that I believe his mother would have taken Pelagia's side over his. Also, where did this baby come from? I know someone left it, but that also seems a little too easy.
I agree. I was uncomfortable with Madras' mother's rejection of him. We had been told earlier about the strong bond of Greek boys to their mothers. I could see her taking Pelagia's side, her shaming him for the attack, but not her cursing him, saying that he was no longer her son. Even with biological children, many traditional families take the side of the son over that of the daughter and Pelagia was only a sort of adopted daughter. I don't care how close the two women became, Mandras was still the son she had not seen in months and months. I also needed more of Mandra s to accept that he would go from 180 to 0 like that, from the rage and self-absorption that led him to attempt rape of Pelagia to total deflation and suicide when his mother disowns him. I realize that his mother's disowning was an extreme act and an extreme blow to him, but his transformation went too quickly given what we already knew of him.I also agree that the baby;s appearance needed more explanation. I thought I had zoned out and missed something when all of a sudden there was a baby. If it was not that I was so taken by the writing and the story to this point, I would have been more critical of the later chapters of this story.
I feel like the ending is being rushed. Apparently the whole point was for Corelli and Pelagia to fall in love, and then be separated. Now that that's happened, we need to tie up some loose ends before they either get their happily ever after or tragic ending. I'm voting for HEA, and they've already got a baby to start their little family (awww << sarcasm!)
Yes, this is a romance at its heart. But, it is such a smart romance that I did not dislike it as I do. Romance is not my thing, but this was so well written and brought in the political commentary, mixing sarcasm with great character development with vivid historical context, that it is making me reconsider if I have been writing off this genre unfairly.
I don't mind romances, but I have to be in the right mood for them, and very rarely will I read books that are only romance, so this is much more what I would also like in a romantic story. I just have loved this story so much that the last few chapters I've read are kinda bumming me out that they are not as fleshed out as most of the rest of the book has been.
I'll be interested to see what you think of the ending.
Hopefully tonight!
I stayed up late to finish it. A little bleary-eyed this morning. I really liked it. I feel like everything that happened after Corelli left was like an extended epilogue, though. We totally breezed over the civil war and the fall of communism. I'm glad he came back and that Pelagia gave him what-for! Though it makes me sad that they could have been together for decades had he just done a little investigating!
At first I was frustrated that he did not respond to her shouts for him, that he hid because he assumed she was married. There is a piece of me that still can not understand why he did not ask around since he knew that parents were dying and children were being raised by other families. But, mostly I was upset that her shouts and cries for him made it clear that she still loved him and wanted him. So what if she was married. She loved him. But, as I thought about my reaction, I realized how much that was a product of changing morality, a morality that does not hold the marriage bond as absolute. He would have returned in the late 40s when divorce was shameful and scandalous. Had she left her husband for him, her reputation would have been ruined and she might have come to resent the sacrifice. But, if she presumed that he was dead, that she saw a fanthom, than she might have a chance to accept her situation and find happiness and peace. What did you think of the open ending? We don't know if they marry or if life has changed both of them that they have to move on. Did you want something more definite? Why do you think the author left it there? And, why end with the image of the three girls on the motorcycle?
He also had close bonds with other people in town. It seems like he would check in with someone?? Or even, how could he sneak about and not have anyone ask who he was or notice him or whatever? Mr. Strong Man (forget his name) was around, Lemoni, Mandras' mother, Pelagia's father. Any one of them and probably a dozen other people could have seen and recognized him. It seems that they get together. It felt to me that they picked up right where they left off. I think she give him a hard time, but they both clearly love each other, or they love the person they knew. I suspect that they have spent so much time pining for the other and are advanced enough in age that even if they have changed, they'll make do.
The girls on the motorcycle was kinda weird. I guess to show that life and youth go on?
I was assuming that the reader was supposed to assume that they become a couple, marry most likely. But, I wondered how realistic that was. Their bond was forged in the strained situation of an occupation. Since then, they both grew and changed and so did the world. They never had to test whether their daily desires and values were compatible. Pelagia especially changed; she was still a girl under her father's direction when she was with Corelli and now she is a grandmother who has been head of the family; she has grown into independence. I also wondered how Corelli eluded everyone else in the town, why only Pelagia saw him. I wondered if having the third girl on the motorcycle be facing backward was a symbol of our tendency to look to the past while we are roaring into the future. In order to know who we are and where we are going, we need to know our story. At the same time, ending that book with those girls in mini-skirts put a lump in my throat in a way that Corelli's return did not. Pelagia and Corelli were once the young people with their lives ahead of them, the ones who rode the motorcycle and dreamed the dreams of endless possibility. And, now they were the anachronistic elderly folks on that motorcycle, the ones with unrealized dreams behind them trying to squeeze a bit of what was denied them out of the remaining years of life. And, they are the lucky ones, because so many of their generation, the young and hopeful ones running into the future, were cruely and senselessly mowed down by 2 world wars and so many genocides.
I kind of resent those girls. I get the sense that they have no idea what this island has been through. They may not even be local girls, with all the tourism. They are on an island paradise freely motoring around without a care in the world, and yet on the same street as they is a couple that has been through so much. Huh, I hadn't realized how much hostility I had towards them! :) I wonder if being together during the war and occupation is enough to have shown their true colors? Both of them were probably at times at the worst and at others at their best because of the hardships. They've probably seen more of each others true selves than many of us will ever see in our significant others. If anything, they might now be bored with each other.
Interesting, I never thought of resenting those girls for their ignorance. But I wonder if that is what De Berniers had in mind. I wonder how Pelagia and Corelli saw them. Of corse, any ignorance they display could be said of any other teen in the 1980s or 1990s in Europe or much of Asia, their grandparents having suffered so much of the war and they living life as if they owned the world. I could make parallels in many other places. Does the generation of Pelagia and Corelli want their grandchildren's generation to live in the shadow of that suffering or do they want to see that generation being free of that shadow? Maybe it is a little of both.
Exactly. It's a lesson every place has to struggle with. This country is still struggling with the after effects of our treatment of the Native peoples, the enslaved peoples, and women, just to name a few... I think it's a valid question, do we move on or do we continually make penance for the past? I think the reason it's so hard is that we don't know what the survivors think. And even if we could ask them, we would get different answers depending on who you asked.
And there is a difference between repentence for past sins and recognition of the sacrifices of past generations. And there is a difference between honoring those who heroically sacrificed for the betterment of their country or society and those who endured sacrifices because they had no choice. In my humble opinion, those who benefited from past injustices (e.g. racism, economic exploitation, stealing land, etc) need to repent until they learn the lesson, until they are willing to rectify the wrong and have disavowed the values that led to the former injustice. Those who heroically sacrificed need to be honored by society so that their example can inspire. And those who simply endured need to be learned from because future generations will encounter unwanted suffering and we need to learn how to do it with grace and how to avoid the bitterness, the fear, the selfishness that can often result from endurance.
Wow, very well said!
LOL,So what is next. Do you just want to do the buddy read in the other group and stop the buddy reads here? Other than a few members listing the books they are finishing and the word association game, there is not much activity in this group. I hate to see it die off, but no one responded to Sheila's earlier request for buddy reads to replact the monthly group read. And, no one has responded to our two buddy reads over the past couple of months.
I am planning on reading a book over there, so I would say, at least for the moment that I'll take a break from here. But, anyone who has been lurking.... set up another buddy read or a request for one and I may be willing to jump back in!
OK, See you around the GR world.
I missed this. This is one of my all time favorites . It was nice to read others opinions
It would have been good to have you with us. It was a great novel. I am so glad I read it.
I just found one of I had not read. It is a collection of short stories called Notwithstanding. Some of the stories were good. But it does not compare with his longer works
I have not read anything else by him. I really should.
Chicks On Lit
Books mentioned in this topic
Birds Without Wings (other topics)At the Wolf's Table (other topics)
Corelli’s Mandolin (other topics)
I'm a little surprised with the plot at the moment. I figured Corelli would die and Mandras would come back, but Corelli survived the firing squad, thanks to my buddy Carlo! Though it seems like he will be smuggled out. So now I don't know what's going to happen.