Justine by Lawrence Durrell

In a rare move I've just read two books by the same author, consecutively.

As I've written recently, Durrell fascinates me with his life, observations and writing style, all focused on the Mediterranean world.

But of course he was mostly known as a novelist, so sooner or later I needed to delve into his fictional work, starting with Justine, the first of his best selling Alexandrian Quartet.

Not surprisingly, the style of Justine parallels his non-fiction writing.  The story involves little action, rather relying on the characters' thoughts, recollections, fantasies, nightmares and descriptions of their lives, which fall somewhere between gorgeous and pathetic.  Its a languid style that paints a picture of a place (Egyptian Alexandria) and time (1930s?) through the mood and emotion it evokes.

His writing style reminds me of the music of Chet Baker whom I've written about previously.  It's the embodiment of melancholy, of lying in bed on a rainy day, thinking about the past, and maybe the future, but without anything actually happening in the present.

It's intriguing.  I'm certain that I wouldn't want every novel written in this way, but I'm almost certain that I will return to his Quartet in the future, once I've had more time to ponder what I experienced in Justine.