Isn't it funny how you pick up novels and don't want to put them down, but also every so often there seems to a be "theme", the last three I have read the main character(s) have travelled around, and the last two have been translations. I used to shy away from translations, but after reading "The 13 and 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear" by Walter Moers, I stopped avoiding them.
Most people have seen at least one Zorro film. Bearing that in mind, the man who is revealed to be Zorro in this book doesn't ring the same, but I prefer to think that Zorro would be like Diego de la Vega in Allende's novel. What better way to put people off thinking a person is Zorro, than be an effeminate fop? Following Diego around in the story, from the New world, to the Old World, and back again, Allende fills in the background of Zorro, how he came to be the man he was in legend.
After reading this book, I would happily read another of Allende's books. For more about her, and some bumph about the book, click here.
Labels: historical fiction, Isabel Allende, Walter Moers