the last book I read

Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell.

This is the second novel in the celebrated Alexandria Quartet, the first of which, Justine, I read back in January 2007.

To recap quickly, the narrator has retreated to an unnamed Greek island to reflect on his time in Alexandria, his affair with the enigmatic Justine and the various goings-on among the diverse expatriate community.

The second book covers pretty much exactly the same period of time as the first, but from a slightly different perspective - the narrator, Darley, has received a manuscript from his friend Balthazar which throws a new light on the events described in Justine - most obviously Darley's view of his relationship with Justine herself, which, it transpires, was largely a smokescreen for Justine's relationship with the British novelist Pursewarden, who subsequently commits suicide.

So we're in Rashomon territory, as a second viewpoint of a series of events reveals the subjectivity of the first - and, by implication, the second as well. The next book in the series, Mountolive, describes the same sequence of events from a third viewpoint.

As with the first, there's a lot of idle swanning around, and, for a novel sequence ostensibly about "modern love", surprisingly little in the way of passion - not that I demand pages and pages about people's inner thighs, or bodily fluids squirting about all over the shop, but there's a lot of talking and precious little in the way of evidence of actual shagging.

For such a wordy and cerebral (some might say "pretentious") novel, though, it's all quite readable. I suspect that by the end of Mountolive I'll be chafing for an end to the navel-gazing and some progression of the plot, though.