Justine by Lawrence Durrell

On Thursday, December 11^th, the Fixed on Fiction book group met to discuss Justine by Lawrence Durrell. Here is a brief summary of the novel, courtesy of Goodreads:

The time is the eve of the World War II. The place is Alexandria, an Egyptian city that once housed the world's greatest library and whose inhabitants are dedicated to knowledge. But for the obsessed characters in this mesmerizing novel, their pursuits lead only to bedrooms in which each seeks to know—and possess—the other. Since its publication in 1957, Justine has inspired an almost religious devotion among readers and critics alike.

It seemed as though readers struggled to identify if Justine was a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or so-so read. One group member described it best by simply stating: “It’s complicated.” Overall, it seemed as though most of us felt like there were some really beautifully written phrases and interesting plot points; however, we had to work our way through a lot of overly descriptive (and irrelevant) narrative to get to those points.

• I felt like I was wading through a lot of dreck to get to the good stuff.
• There are some fantastic phrases, but you have to suffer greatly to get to them.

Additionally, most of us felt some frustration with the author as he would mention some really interesting character details but failed to “circle back” and expand upon them. Justine’s kidnapped child was the primary example here- we would have loved to have read more about this incident rather than the lengthy descriptions of Alexandria. One reader accurately described this as Durrell “having messed up priorities.” Another group member lamented the lack of character development- “If this isn’t a character driven novel, and it isn’t a plot driven novel, what does that leave?” Ultimately, we needed more plot and less setting.

Despite our frustrations with the novel, we could all point out certain lines or paragraphs which we found very moving. In fact, we spent a good portion of the meeting skimming through the text and reading some of our favorite lines out loud. Here are some quotes which we found especially memorable:

“I return link by link along the iron chains of memory to the city which we inhabited so briefly together: the city which used us as its flora-precipitated in us conflicts which were hers and which we mistook for our own: beloved Alexandria!” (3).

“What I most need to do is to record experiences, not in the order in which they took place- for that is history- but in the order in which they first became significant for me” (102).

“Lovers are never equally matched- do you think? One always overshadows the other and stunts his or her growth so that the overshadowed one must always be tormented by a desire to escape, to be free to grow. Surely this is the only tragic thing about love?” (225).

Despite our frustrations with Justine, we had a very engaging and enjoyable discussion. Two group members even said that they might consider reading the rest of Durrell’s quartet as they are curious to know what happens to this cast of characters.