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Article: Lawrence Durrell.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 16, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LAWRENCE DURRELL. By Ian MacNiven. Faber & Faber; 832 pages; $46.95 and K25
WHEN, late in life, Lawrence Durrell visited Montreal for the first time, he wrote to a friend that he had been surprised by the city's unexpected resemblance to San Francisco. The likeness was certainly an odd one for Durrell to be struck by: not so much because of any lack of obvious similarities between the two cities as because he had never actually been to San Francisco. But then-as this new biography of the old rogue points out-the author of "The Alexandria Quartet" and "The Avignon Quintet" was given to fibbing. Or, rather (in Ian MacNiven's more partisan phrase) to "deceiving with ...