I've only taken one history course in my entire life. This is an embarrassing admission for someone who likes to learn and encourages the same in others. Hence when I first started to read Captain Corelli's Mandolin (CCM) and encountered the author's (Louis de Bernières ) dedication I knew I was in for trouble. He states unequivocally his disdain for Fascism and in particular it's notable luminaries during the time of the Second World War. There was a certain edge in his brief comments which made me somewhat ashamed that my knowledge of European history started with William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings and ended with King John and his Magna Carta.
I was immediately and pleasantly surprised with de Bernières' fluid and captivating writing style. All of my historical and academic insecurities instantly evaporated with the folksy rendering of rural family life on the Grecian isle of Cephallonia. The characters were developed slowly and very naturally. Each chapter (at least the opening ones) read like a well integrated short story. I was enthralled by the subtle application of humour to the otherwise ordinary and pedestrian life of a widowed home spun doctor and his only child.
CCM is fundamentally a story of human love under the backdrop of human war. The author powerfully demonstrates how the latter is evilly contrived and then universally and indiscriminately imposed on the masses; with little or no consideration at all to the former. This theme is presented persistently and consistently throughout the book. In the case of this reader, my ignorance of Fascism, Nazism and Imperialism was quickly remedied. My heart at once was directly connected to my brain. My emotions and thoughts, which oftentimes are distinct parts of my soul became automatically fused. I was hooked and could not escape even though many times I wanted the human drama to end. Pathos was given legs and arms. It even grew wings.
CCM leads one to explore a very real aspect of all intimate human relationships: disappointment. If nothing else the author paints a realistic and sometimes gruesome picture of the aspirations of true love among real people. It is not overly pessimistic in this regard but nevertheless the reader may find its denouement somewhat unsatisfactory.
In conclusion I was marvellously enriched by reading this moving novel. On the one hand I learned a great deal about WWII and specifically it's sinister and crazy leaders. I now feel as if I know something about war and history rather than nothing. The book is definitely educational and has been well researched. More importantly I gleaned from the author that human life, without hope in a God who exists and really cares about his creation and his errant human creatures, is at best disappointing and unsatisfying. Things that should have been do not occur. Things that need not or must not occur in fact do happen. The author very much understands that God, or more specifically religion, do and should play a role in resolving the big issues of life. But he leaves us with no answers are even workable options. Such is the conclusion of a realist and a humanist. The conception that de Bernières uses of the Almighty is god rather than God. Men cry to him in desperation and end up looking like tragic fools. Atheists are portrayed as somewhat noble in that their hunches about life, love and war, though cruel, ring true in the final analysis. In the end there are no winners or over comers. Just the dead, the wounded, the scared and the aged. The only ray of hope we see is with the next generation of youth.
Ironically the author gets the story almost right. He is blinded to the fact that indeed there is a God who is intimately interested in the items of global wars as well as the intimacy of human love. Jesus is precisely the demonstration of these sublime and at the same time solemn facts. He created life, lived life and descended into the darkest pits of hell and evil and horror that any human author could conceive. More importantly he triumphed over these dark satanic mills in order that we might taste life and enjoy the fullness of and joy of human love, even midst the storm of war and human strife. That's why I was not disappointed in reading this book.
