首页
登录
职称英语
Louis de Bernieres’ Corelli’s Mandolin is one of the most charming, accomplis
Louis de Bernieres’ Corelli’s Mandolin is one of the most charming, accomplis
游客
2023-12-19
27
管理
问题
Louis de Bernieres’ Corelli’s Mandolin is one of the most charming, accomplished novels I have read. So the prospect of reviewing his new book had me all but salivating. Happily, the wondrous Birds Without Wings more than lives up to expectations.
Like Corelli’s Mandolin, which was set on a Greek island during its Italian occupation in World War Ⅱ, Birds Without Wings is also a story of two Mediterranean cultures living cheek by jowl. Eskibahce is a small hillside village on the southwestern coast of Turkey. At the beginning of the 20th century, Greeks and Turks--along with a smattering of Armenians and Jews--live amicably in the town. The community is so intermingled the Greeks speak only Turkish and the few Turks who can write use the Greek alphabet. The line between Greek Christianity and Turkish Islam is equally skewed. Muslim women think nothing of asking their Christian friends to light votive candles on their behalf, and the Christians have great respect for the local imam.
It is not unusual that Ibrahim, a Muslim boy, is in love with Philothei, the most beautiful Greek girl in town. Karatavuk, the son of the Muslim potter, and Mehmetcik, from a Christian family, are inseparable friends, never parted for a day until they are conscripted into service for the First World War. But anyone familiar with the history of the region can foresee that tragedy will befall this idyllic community: tragedy in the form of hatred, war, expulsion and genocide. The blossoming of Turkish nationalism will reignite the tribalism that has always marked this region of the world. Eskibahce’s way of life will be destroyed, and this coming cataclysm hangs over the novel like the sword of Damocles.
Readers familiar with de Bernieres’ work know he has a very unusual way of unfolding a narrative. Different characters tell parts of the story, and sometimes an omniscient narrator chimes in with third person authority.
In Birds Without Wings, for instance, we get some of the story with hindsight, from survivors who were children at the time. Other events are told as they occur. Throughout, there are sections about the rise of Mustafa Kemal, known as Ataturk, the great military leader who westernized Turkey, that read almost like history. It is the tragic intersection of the stories that give the novel its substance and weight.
De Bernieres’ brilliance is that he manages to recount bleak history cloaked in radiant garb. He is a gifted storyteller who offers up his tale at an unhurried pace, introducing violence or despair with the same inevitability as such happier impulses as loyalty and honor. Blood feuds, retaliation, religious intolerance--all are so ingrained in everyday life in Eskibahce that few among its likable inhabitants really take them seriously. But it is precisely because the novelist allows us to embrace these characters, warts and all, that we are shocked when these ordinary people are driven by a madness that will destroy everything and everyone they love.
Birds Without Wings is, among other things, a great anti-war novel. History, it tells: us, "is finally nothing but a sorry edifice constructed from hacked flesh in the name of great ideas." Strong sentiments, but a reminder that the same internecine hatred erupted in Europe countless times during the ensuing century.
Corelli’s Mandolin was such a masterwork that it seems almost unfair that de Bernieres could produce another book as good, perhaps better. Birds Without Wings is a tour de force, a novel as complex and compelling, as instructive and unsettling as history itself. [br] According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
选项
A、Mustafa Kemal is a character in Birds Without Wings.
B、Eskibahce used to be a peaceful place before the war.
C、De Bernieres’ two novels were set in different places.
D、The destruction of Eskibahce’s way of life is avoidable.
答案
D
解析
从第三和第六段均可看出Eskibahce’s way of life的毁灭是不可避免的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3285668.html
相关试题推荐
LouisdeBernieres’Corelli’sMandolinisoneofthemostcharming,accomplis
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"t
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"t
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"t
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"th
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"th
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"th
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"th
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"t
"Thelandscapeseenfromourwindowsiscertainlycharming,"saidAnnabel;"t
随机试题
Thedrinkwaspackagedinchampagnebottlesandwasbeing______astherealstuff
男性,64岁,突发气喘、心慌2小时,高血压病史9年。检查:半卧位,血压200/1
模块A执行几个逻辑上相似的功能,通过参数确定该模块完成哪一个功能,则该模块具有(
免疫球蛋白中与过敏反应关系密切的是A.IgA B.IgM C.IgE D.
下列不属于非典型脑脓肿CT表现特征的是A.部分呈环状强化,部分呈片状强化 B.
女性,5岁,尿频、尿急、尿痛5天,体温39.5℃,左肾区有叩击痛,尿常规蛋白(+
患者,男性,51岁,巩膜黄染进行性加重,尿黄3个月无伴腹痛。B超检查发现胆总管扩
下面有关清算的解释,正确的是()。 A.是指一定经济行为引起的货币资金关
共用题干 一般资料:求助者,女性,45岁,个体老板。案例介绍:求助者的儿子患有
适用于浅埋暗挖、进出工作井地段和岩体松软破碎地段的地表预加固地层的措施是()。A
最新回复
(
0
)