Justine is the "autobiographical novel" of a Scottish writer living in Alexandria's émigré community between the two World Wars. (The book's actual author, Lawrence Durrell, lived in Damascus and wrote the novel in 1957.) In main part it is the dissection of a scene: writers, philosophers, artists, prostitutes, loan sharks, and the odd (and eccentric) civil servant or banker. At least, you sense that the "author" of the novel would have liked to have written a novel about this scene, had settled in Alexandria in order to write a novel about this scene, but that what he actually wrote was a novel describing his close circle of friends in literary/poetic/psychological terms, quoting them quoting each other quoting À Rebours. Everyone in this group is "interesting"/dysfunctional and the main subject of their conversation is themselves: their various worldviews and the regrettable circumstances which have caused these to come about.
This may sound boring but due to the high concentration of Very Interesting and Intelligent Characters(tm) it is fascinating. Which brings me to my second point: this is a novel about fascination. The author's circle of friends would be incestuous enough even if they were NOT mostly obsessed with Justine, but this is not the case. Only three characters, Scobie, Pursewarden, and Melissa, are primarily acquaintances of the author, and even these three do not manage to escape her. (Well, maybe Pursewarden. Melissa might have if she'd had more choice. Scobbie is confined to bed.) The author himself is carrying on an affair with Justine, right under the nose of her husband and his best friend, Nessim. This affair does not make him happy but only fatalistic and obsessive, but he can't walk away from it. As for Justine, she is "not intelligent but possessed of an animal cunning" and a knack for appropriating other people's intelligent remarks; she is broken but also magnetically, hypnotically, compellingly, beautiful. ( Read more... )
Any of the characters in this book could honestly have carried an entire novel by themselves, so in a sense it is a shame that so much of the novel's stage time is eaten by Justine. I would have liked to have known more about Nessim or Melissa, especially. But there is a rule of fascination in literature: the more the fascination is described, the more it is replicated in the person of the reader. There is a reason the novel is called Justine, in other words.
The ending is very interesting and worth talking about (it is about Peace destroying Art only the author does not say definitively that this is what has taken place), but I do not want to spoil too much. Spoilers are welcome in comments, but not for the other three books in the Quartet, which I definitely intend to read -- recommended!
This may sound boring but due to the high concentration of Very Interesting and Intelligent Characters(tm) it is fascinating. Which brings me to my second point: this is a novel about fascination. The author's circle of friends would be incestuous enough even if they were NOT mostly obsessed with Justine, but this is not the case. Only three characters, Scobie, Pursewarden, and Melissa, are primarily acquaintances of the author, and even these three do not manage to escape her. (Well, maybe Pursewarden. Melissa might have if she'd had more choice. Scobbie is confined to bed.) The author himself is carrying on an affair with Justine, right under the nose of her husband and his best friend, Nessim. This affair does not make him happy but only fatalistic and obsessive, but he can't walk away from it. As for Justine, she is "not intelligent but possessed of an animal cunning" and a knack for appropriating other people's intelligent remarks; she is broken but also magnetically, hypnotically, compellingly, beautiful. ( Read more... )
Any of the characters in this book could honestly have carried an entire novel by themselves, so in a sense it is a shame that so much of the novel's stage time is eaten by Justine. I would have liked to have known more about Nessim or Melissa, especially. But there is a rule of fascination in literature: the more the fascination is described, the more it is replicated in the person of the reader. There is a reason the novel is called Justine, in other words.
The ending is very interesting and worth talking about (it is about Peace destroying Art only the author does not say definitively that this is what has taken place), but I do not want to spoil too much. Spoilers are welcome in comments, but not for the other three books in the Quartet, which I definitely intend to read -- recommended!