I've tried very many times to read Corelli's Mandolin (which I always thought had a"Captain " at the head, but apparently (Hollywood be damned) does not), but I could never get past the second chapter. This summer I have solved this hitherto insurmountable problem by skipping the second chapter altogether. I suppose I will go back to it when I've finished the book entirely and am missing something of de B.. Although chapter 2, or THE DUCE (Mussolini), is a character we don't really meet or care about until later in the book, unless you are reading this book solely for it's historical and political rants, which I find interesting at first, but too tiresome to sit though chapter upon chapter of...I am, of course, talking solely for myself. I'm sure that the political insanity of the time is of much interest to almost any other person reading it. I would be happy to have enough background to know what's going on, but not so much that I feel that it is two different books, shuffled like a deck of cards in with one another. I have my suspicions that de B just liked the thought of chapter 2 being named The Duce, because Americans will read "deuce" rather than "duche". Probably mislaid suspicions. Glad I skipped it and insisted on reading ahead, (I even got through most of chapter 35, also about el Ducerino). I'm very much enjoying all of the rest, except for Pelagia calling her father 'moped' (Papakis) and other small annoying Greek translations you'd think would have been caught and set right by now. It's only been 21 years. To be fair, though, maybe the editors never got past chapter 2 either. I am not ending on that sentence because it is accidentally too Bryson/Barry endingesque. Even if this is just for me to read and remember what I have and haven't read, I could never forgive a Brysonberry closing remark. In conclusion,.
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