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#SundaySentence

Over ten years ago, I read the first book of the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. This summer I read books 3 & 4. Clea is the final book of the quartet and takes some of the people's stories to their conclusions, and reveals hidden truths to others. Clea herself is more of a focus and serves as Darley's connector back to Alexandria, even if it has grown more sordid with the war.⤵️

Finally finished the last of the four, with a heavy heart and tiny sigh of relief. Some moments explode off the page while others slide along forgotten. The storyline marches on without ever completely coming to an end; my only issue is that central characters and reasons for motivation, in this last book, seem to be trivialized by almost evaporating entirely from the plot.

"a civilization is simply a great metaphor which describes the aspirations of the individual soul in collective form — as perhaps a novel or a poem might do. The struggle is always for greater consciousness. But alas! Civilizations die in the measure that they become conscious of themselves." Trump‘s America could hardly fit this mold...! How much self awareness is there in a Tweet?

"you might try a four-card trick in the form of a novel; passing a common axis through four stories, say, and dedicating each to one of the four winds of heaven... Just an ordinary Girl Meets Boy story.”

With the previous 3 books I was often torn, but I really liked the idea of a story that you kept finding out new angles to, and although sometimes confusing and vague, there were some really beautiful passages and ambiance. This one just let me down. It's not another angle, it's years later when the author comes back to Alexandria and other things happen and I just don't feel it was up to par with the rest. Plus, I did not like the ending at all.

"The oranges were more plentiful than usual that year. They glowed in their arbours of burnished green leaf like lanterns, flickering up there among the sunny woods..." #firstlines