Bitter Lemons of Cyprus

"Bitter Lemons" (1957) is the third of four 'landscape books' that Durrell wrote about his pre- and post-war experiences in and around the Mediterranean. The other books in this series are "Prospero's Cell," "Reflections on a Marine Venus," and "Sicilian Carousel." The first book, "Prospero's Cell" was written in the years preceding World War II. Durrell's foreshadowing of that grim future cast his landscapes and dazzling Greek villages of Corfu into intense relief. In his second book, war still clings like a gray film to the bright fabric of "Reflections of a Marine Venus," which was begun in 1945. In his third island book, the author moves away from World War II, and into his experiences dodging gunmen and bombs during the postwar 'unrest' on Cyprus, which was then a British protectorate. Even though it seemed from Durrell's first two books that he would be a strong supporter of Enosis--the union of Cyprus with Greece--he comes across as a pompous British colonialist in "Bitter Lemons." Poona stuff all around that reads rather obnoxiously in the Twenty-first century. Some of his Greek friends stopped speaking to him, but Durrell's patriotic rhetoric can be partially excused by his position--he was the British Director of Information for Cyprus. According to the introduction by Ian S. MacNiven, Durrell might even have been in the pay of MI-5 (British Military Intelligence). This is still a very moving book about essentially peaceful Cypriots, both Greek and Turk getting caught up in a bloody conflict no one really wanted. There are many parallels to current-day Lebanon, especially if you look beyond the scope of "Bitter Lemons" to the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey. Durrell's second great obsession during his years on Cyprus was the purchase and restoration of an old Turkish house at Bellapaix. This is the best part of the book in spite of the stereotypical 'boisterous' Greeks and 'indolent' Turks. The author employs his best, most beautiful descriptions on his house, his village, and the surrounding territory. This is the author I came to love in the first two books of this series. "Bitter Lemons" is thought by some to be the best of Durrell's island books. I would rate it the least, but still worth reading. Recommendation: try to find the Marlowe & Company editions of Durrell's island quartet for their knowledgeable and interesting introductions.

I visited Mr. Durrell's house in 1991 while visiting my relatives in the American Embassy (it has a little sign that says Bitter Lemons). I didn't want to go to Cypress; it was just something to do to kill time one summer with my family. I read the book on the way there and finished it a day before the trip to the Turkish side of the island. It was like a light had been turned on and it has never been out since. I plan and I go everywhere now and as often as I can. Good enough to purchase another copy after 15 years of use.

I wouldn't want to spoil the thing by saying too much, but it was a very interesting read, aside from being intensely pleasant. There's a certain delicacy, about death, and strife, and the drinking of wine. Durrell is well spoken and well informed: you might think, like I did, that the story of Cyprus isn't politically relevant. But I only thought that because I'm an ignorant American, and because I had yet to read this lovely book.

An evocative memoir of the author's stay [1953-6] in what's now Northern Cyprus. Much of the landscape was still as he described it when we visited Belle Pais, Famagusta, Kyrenia, and Nicosia, the Tree of Idleness and other sites on our hiking trip to Cyprus in 2001. His adventures in buying and maintaining a house rival those of Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence"written many years later. The peaceful interludes in the hills are marred by foreshadowing of the political turmoil and tragedies that would engulf Cyprus in the following decades, leading to the departure of Durrell and other foreign nationals. Some of those towns and even cities remain ghost towns to this day. Once hard to find, this book has now been deservedly reissued.