Nunquam a novel by Lawrence Durrell
London: Faber and Faber, 1970 ISBN 057109760X
In my last post on this site I stated that I would read the sequel to Durrell's Tunc, if for no other reason than to try and make sense of this story. Well, now I have done that, and honestly I'm not sure if I'm any the wiser....
Taking up from where Tunc left off, we find Felix in an asylum after being tracked down by Julian. Benedicta comes back into his life, after rejecting Julian and Merlin, and together they nurse themselves back to health. Eventually they both meet Julian (Felix for the first time), and Felix is convinced to rejoin the firm to take the lead on Julian's new project.
That project is to create an artificial Iolanthe, a job in which Julian and Marchant succeed beyond their wildest expectations. Once they bring the simulacrum to life, "she" gives them the slip and leads an independent life, before the final tragedy that leaves Felix in charge of the firm, with a plan to destroy the entire edifice.
That, and a subplot of the death of Jocas, is pretty much the story of Nunquam. Like Tunc there is some wonderful descriptive writing, but again the story is lacking and as I was reading it I got the feeling that at times Durrell was merely time-filling. There are some rants about various things (sexuality is prominent in both books), but I spent a good part of this novel waiting for something to happen. It is a frustrating read, because I feel it could have been better than it is. Although I will add that my reading of this book was interrupted by issues that may have coloured my view of it.
Not one of my favourite reads, but you may have a different view.
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