As is the case with The Alexandria Quartet and The Avignon Quintet (19571960), Durrell's technique, form, and narrative strategies in The Revolt of Aphrodite are playful, experimental, typical — some would argue — of the postmodern novel, and for some readers, confusing at first glance. In this work as in his other major fictions, Durrell rejects what he calls "the old stable outlines of the dear old linear novel," preferring a "soft focus palimpsest," choosing to present events and experiences not in mere chronological order, but in the jumbled sequence in which they attain significance; that is to say, Durrell rejects mere history and embraces fiction, the chaotic rush and moil of life. For the reader trying to come to terms with the techniques of The Revolt of Aphrodite, there may be little comfort in Durrell's assertion in his afterword that "the poetic game is to try and put...