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jasonfurman's review
5.0
Brilliant, spellbinding from beginning to end, makes you think you're living in an extension of the universe imagined by Cervantes in Don Quixote.
The book has alternating chapters. Half of them are in the first person by Cervantes and tell his life story from birth to death, focusing on his fleeing from Spain following a bar room brawl, coming to Italy, fighting in the battle of Lepanto, and his time in captivity in Algiers. Many of the elements and characters he encounters are refashioned into Don Quixote, although the persiod when he was in and out of jail and writing his masterpiece basically take place off stage.
The other half of the chapters are primarily by what I believe is a fictional character, Luis Lara, a wealthy aristocrat who befriends Cervantes, ultimately becomes obsessively jealous of him, and writes the famous, false Don Quixote Part II--an unauthorized sequel to Don Quixote that appeared prior to Cervantes own continuation. Luis is fascinating because he feels his greater education and literary background make him superior to Cervantes gutter humor. The final chapter is narrated by Luis's servant--which gives yet another perspective on the entire story.
Cervantes Street can be read as a fast-paced adventure story, a running commentary on Don Quixote, a historical biopic, or an interesting piece of speculative fiction. The writing itself is extremely good and is sprinkled throughout with borrowing from Don Quixote and other Cervantes writing which are woven effortlessly into the original novel itself.
Reading it is sending me right back to Don Quixote for a third time.
The book has alternating chapters. Half of them are in the first person by Cervantes and tell his life story from birth to death, focusing on his fleeing from Spain following a bar room brawl, coming to Italy, fighting in the battle of Lepanto, and his time in captivity in Algiers. Many of the elements and characters he encounters are refashioned into Don Quixote, although the persiod when he was in and out of jail and writing his masterpiece basically take place off stage.
The other half of the chapters are primarily by what I believe is a fictional character, Luis Lara, a wealthy aristocrat who befriends Cervantes, ultimately becomes obsessively jealous of him, and writes the famous, false Don Quixote Part II--an unauthorized sequel to Don Quixote that appeared prior to Cervantes own continuation. Luis is fascinating because he feels his greater education and literary background make him superior to Cervantes gutter humor. The final chapter is narrated by Luis's servant--which gives yet another perspective on the entire story.
Cervantes Street can be read as a fast-paced adventure story, a running commentary on Don Quixote, a historical biopic, or an interesting piece of speculative fiction. The writing itself is extremely good and is sprinkled throughout with borrowing from Don Quixote and other Cervantes writing which are woven effortlessly into the original novel itself.
Reading it is sending me right back to Don Quixote for a third time.
aditurbo's review
5.0
Beautiful novel, which tries to fill in and explain the mysteries and missing parts in the biography of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. The writing is superb, bringing to life all of the scents, flavors and sights of old Spain, Algiers and other places, as well as creating fully-developed characters, convincing and human. For a literary novel, it is a page-turner, un-put-downable and suspenseful. A jewel of a book.
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