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Title: Boring, dull, disappointing
Review: What a disappointment after that unforgettable love story, "Correlli's Mandolin." Coming to de Bernieres' first novel, I was filled with expectation: of the breathtaking descriptions of landscape, the sly and trenchant examinations of politics, the painfully, beautfully detailed events of characters' lives which seem to forge their own meaning. Instead, I found a dull collection of "wacky" and gruesome vignettes. Instead of characters, we have carboard cutouts. Instead of subversive thought, we have plain ideology. Instead of true invention, we have unfocussed experimentation. And instead of a story, we have a plot. A bruising disappointment for a huge fan.
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