I am very disappointed with this book. De Bernieres has hitherto been one of my favourite writers but Notwithstanding has let me down. Middle England meets Middle-of-the-road. I had to keep reminding myself that I was not reading McColl Smith. I cannot help but feel that Notwithstanding was writ...
I want to live in a world populated by these batty characters, punctuated by all the funny, bizarre and touching moments which de Bernieres skillfully embroiders into his most recent book. The English village of Notwithstanding is a long way from the hills of Kefalonia described in [Captain Corel...
This is one of those books that I didn't actually have much interest in reading; nothing about it appealed to me, and watching the movie a few years ago didn't change that. But for some reason that eludes me now, I picked up a copy from somewhere, and after having it sit on my shelf for another y...
I feel inherently bad whenever I decide to rate a book with such a dismal rating as “1 Star.” Yes, I am fully aware that my opinionated “1” means diddlysquat in the totality of things; that I am just a minuscule reader, one of millions, and my less than stellar rating is predictable should a publ...
I have read a number of books by de Bernieres the first being Captain Corelli's Mandolin, (I enjoyed both the book and the film) I then went on read The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, then The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman (two of his Colombian trilogy) which I didn’t particular...
Quite randomly grabbed this in the bookswap, and I'm very glad I did now! Although with this book, Beth has now witnessed just how much I really can sob my heart out over a book... jeez, this easily got me as bad as Thunderwith did - twice over! I was crying so hard by the time Bill was unable to...
... let me introduce you to Dionisio properly, except that I am going to start calling him Empedocles, who misguidedly threw himself into a volcano in order to prove that he was a god. I find that analogy very apt. In the eyes of his friend Ramon, an unusual policeman who refuses bribes and reads...
Mildly disappointing, but only compared to the insanely high standards I have come to expect from Mr de Berniéres and his extreme awesomeness as an author.The storyCardinal Guzman is not the best guy around, not even by normal person standards. And the man is a Cardinal! So as you might expect, C...
