Books: “The Alexandria Quartet” By Lawrence Durrell

“Justine,” “Balthazar,” “Mountolive,” and “Clea”, which make up the quartet in this strange ode to the mirage like city. Its inhabitants and their grasp on the lightness of being, mock the complex Western philosophies of Ethos- in the same way a sand storm is accepted, the natives submit to terrifying desires of others and cruel fates. The barbaric hacking of the peaceful camel mesmerized by the moon, descriptions of child brothels, are haunting. Within its city confines are the expatriates who try to make sense of it all, controlling destiny at first, then finally submitting to it like a weathered castle. Each novel is like a map, (the novels within the novels, its cipher) and it is only through the layering of the four, the centre of this Egyptian pyramid is revealed. After many dark corridors, twists and turns into secret chambers of pretentious explanations, we arrive at the truth- something that was revealed to us in the first book, but needed further exploration in order for its meaning to be understood through miserably failed examples of love.  

“Love is horribly stable, and each of us is only allotted a certain portion of it, a ration. It is capable of appearing in an infinity of forms and attaching itself to an infinity of people. But it is limited in quantity, can be used up, become shop-worn and faded before it reaches its true object. For its destination lies somewhere in the deepest regions of the psyche.”

“From time to time a cracked wind arrives from directly above and stirs the whole city round and round so that one has the illusion that everything – the trees, minarets, monuments and people have been caught in the final eddy of some great whirlpool and will pour softly back at last into the desert from which they rose, reverting once more to the anonymous wave-sculptured floor of dunes…”

“I once saw a film on penguins in the mating season. The male penguin, than which nothing could more ludicrously resemble man, collects stones and places them before the lady of his choice when he proposes. It must be seen to be appreciated. Now I am behaving like a male penguin.”