Simple slice - Rated 
Louis De Bernieres has carved out a complex story using really only two main characters who flash back using their own narration to their own contrasting lives. To me, though, it did not seem like a "proper novel" just like a one person play is more of a "performance" than a play. As the narrators by their own admission were making up some of their narration it left me feeling as if the read was all for nothing. Having said that, there were some powerful, moving and dramatic narrated scenes so I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the plight of immigrant young people in London, the 70s/80s and the selfishness/thoughtlessness of passive unhappily married middle-aged men.
The power of a good story - Rated 
Chris, is a travelling salesman aged 40 in an unhappy marriage when he meets Roza, a young woman from Yugoslavia, in Archway, North London. She is standing at the side of the road when he approaches her believing her to be a prostitute, although, as he makes clear, he is not a man who has ever approached a prostitute before.
The year is 1979, Mrs Thatcher is about to take power in England and Marshall Tito will soon die in Yugoslavia. The tragic fragmentation of Yugoslavia is still some way off.
The story is told in the first person by the two characters - Chris and Roza, and in retrospect by the older Chris.
Chris becomes fascinated by Roza. She invites him to visit her as a friend and he comes back several times, in love and in lust as she tells him the events of her life since she was a little girl, the proud daughter of a second world-war partisan fighter.
There is a marked contrast between the passionate and open Roza and the anaemic, closed-down Chris; the vitality and violence of her life compared to the sheltered docility of the life that he has led. Over time and over coffee in the basement of a run-down house where nobody goes by their real name, his repressed lust turns to fascination and then love as he listens to the stories from her life. She at last has found someone who will listen to an account of the heights of joy along with the depths of degradation and humiliation she has experienced. They both work through the mistakes made and wrong paths taken before ending up here.
The painful embarrassment and sad misunderstanding of the ending when Chris the repressed Englishman gets drunk and expresses his feelings at last, leave a strong sense of loss that remains with the reader long after the last word has been read.
I'm not being partisan: this is a good read! - Rated
I started reading this novel as `light relief' in the middle of tackling "Birds Without Wings" (a brilliant book in itself, but for quite different reasons).
All the De Bernieres hallmarks are here, but this is quite a slim volume in comparison with its two predecessors: None the worse for that though. The plot is quite simple and straightforward, with the usual narrative excursions more closely tied into the main storyline.
Whereas the amiable sprawl of "Birds Without Wings" gradually builds up a comprehensive composite of a society in the process of change, "A Partisan's Daughter" really has only two central characters, and the story evolves from their lives alone.
Roza, the partisan's daughter, ends up in London living in a seedy flat, but her life hitherto has been varied, to say the least. She meets up with Chris, who inadvertently mistakes her for a prostitute (though describing the initial meeting so baldly, really doesn't do justice to the episode, which is poignantly comical, and does not end up in a sexual or business transaction!!).
Chris, unhappy in his marriage, visits Roza on numerous occasions, drawn back time and again by the stories of her life. It is clear that he would like their relationship to be sexual one, but partly through his reticence and timidity, and through the beguiling forces of her storytelling this is `a pleasure indefinitely postponed'. He is drawn back again and again as the web is spun
De Bernieres [incidentally, we are told, the `Bob Dylan Upstairs' character in the novel] never undercuts the storytelling by openly suggesting that the stories are fabrications on the part of the storyteller, but we are left with the impression that though there is a kernel of truth, it may well be that there are other `versions' of the tales told.
I will not spoil you enjoyment by revealing any more, but suffice it to say that this novel has my heartiest recommendation.
Annoying and disappointing - Rated 
Undeveloped, cold, boring and a touch misogynistic I advise you to not waste your time reading this empty novel. Lazy writing and cruising on his famous name. An English A level student could do better.
Uninvolving - Rated 
As an avid reader and fan of just about everything that Louis de Bernières has written I was relishing the prospect of another broadly-painted and entertaining novel peopled with engaging characters. It was therefore disappointing to reach the end of A Partisan's Daughter feeling little in the way of involvement with the main characters and little sympathy with either of them. I agree with another reviewer that this book is really more of a long short story but it lacks the succinctness and directness that a well-written short story often so successfully conveys (see, for example, Adam Marek's Instruction Manual for Swallowing).
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