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A review by astoriedsoul
The Barefoot Queen by Ildefonso Falcones
3.0
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.
This review originally appeared on my blog: The Literarium
It is 1748, and after the death of her master and confined on a boat bound for Spain from Cuba, newly-freed slave Caridad finds herself in a new land with nowhere to go and no options open to her. However, shortly after landing in Seville, she encounters and becomes part of the local gypsy community, befriending Milagros. Eventually the gypsy community is outlawed by the government, and the two women find themselves in the middle of the gypsies’ fight for freedom. They end up traveling to Madrid, a journey will take Caridad and Milagros through the perilous avenues of love, freedom, and community.
I haven’t read a lot of Spanish fiction, or very much at all as far as I can remember, so this is probably a first for me. I must say I’m intrigued by the depth of scope in this novel regarding its content. Focusing on 1740s Spain and its little-talked-about gypsy community, Falcones crafts an insightful and unique story that places itself within the ranks of contemporary world classics to watch out for. The fact that this novel is about a freed slave and the Spanish gypsy community intrigued me; I like reading about little-known communities, and this is one community I feel has been silenced throughout history. So if you like new and unique subject-matter in your novels, particularly your historical fiction, this book is one you should check out.
Falcones’s writing is top-notch; however, this is quite a dense read linguistically. I’m not sure if this is due to the fact that this is a translation from the Spanish (I have not seen the original to be certain), or if this is due to simply poor editing. The narrative also tends to fall historical digressions in many places, where Falcones would attempt to clue the reader into what a place used to be, what it might have been used for, and so on. Unfortunately, this ends up interrupting the overall flow of the story to the point of being quite boring. I would prefer to work my way through the original in the hopes that the writing was more engaging, but I’m not sure this issue is the fault of the book being a translation. Yet in all of this, Falcones still presents a vivid portrayal of his characters, a freed slave and a Spanish gypsy, and 18th-century Spain, and I found the perspective and voice authentic and poignant.
Between the two female characters, I found Caridad more interesting and sympathetic in terms of getting to experience Spanish culture of this time through an “outsider’s” perspective and as one who eventually is drawn into it. She finds a place to exist where before she had none. She finds her humanity in a place that allows her some way to be human, to no longer be a slave, but to simply be Caridad. I found drawn to her most of all.
This brings me to another issue I had with this book: Falcones’s pervasive sexualization of his female characters. For example, two chapters into the book I encountered a rather vile rape scene that left me alienated and angry. This scenes (and I’m leaving out names and details to avoid spoilers) is void of all emotion and insight on the part of the narrator/author. While I understand that rape can often lack emotion, there should be something felt by someone. Where’s the anger? Where’s the feelings of defilement, violation, shame, despair? There was none of this during or after. What’s more, the scene did not even need to be there; it served no purpose. The scene could have been omitted and would not have taken anything away from the story. Subsequent scenes of her being taken against her will by another man who keeps her in his basement to charge other men to take advantage of her was also unnecessary. Not to mention that through a lot of the story, Caridad and Milagros inspire so much lust and desire that men are described as masturbating or otherwise finding pleasure in fantasizing about them. I understand they’re beautiful women–fine–but the rest of it is unnecessary. I felt like the lustful sexualization was meant to express how beautiful the women in the book are, but this could have been done in other ways.
With this issue aside, Falcones’s novel is overall a solid piece of historical fiction. I found it well-written, though quite dense; the subject and characters are unique and fresh, and the insight with which Falcones writes is to be respected. I like that over the course of the novel, we experience and take part in the transformation of Spain at this time in history. I learned about people in a country and time-period I previously knew so little about. In spite of the quality writing and unique perspective, it all fell flat for me because it just lacks that something that left me unable to engage like I want to, and found it a struggle to continue reading. Finally, in the midst of all this I grew alienated from the text because of the sexualization of the female characters. However, I have to reiterate that this is still a book worth reading; hardcore historical fiction lovers will love this, and maybe even history buffs for Falcones’s attention to the gypsies of 18th-century Spain, a culture that doesn’t get a lot written about it in fiction. Just keep in mind the sexual nature of some of the novel’s content and the fact that the narrative takes time and attention to get through for its density.
This review originally appeared on my blog: The Literarium
It is 1748, and after the death of her master and confined on a boat bound for Spain from Cuba, newly-freed slave Caridad finds herself in a new land with nowhere to go and no options open to her. However, shortly after landing in Seville, she encounters and becomes part of the local gypsy community, befriending Milagros. Eventually the gypsy community is outlawed by the government, and the two women find themselves in the middle of the gypsies’ fight for freedom. They end up traveling to Madrid, a journey will take Caridad and Milagros through the perilous avenues of love, freedom, and community.
I haven’t read a lot of Spanish fiction, or very much at all as far as I can remember, so this is probably a first for me. I must say I’m intrigued by the depth of scope in this novel regarding its content. Focusing on 1740s Spain and its little-talked-about gypsy community, Falcones crafts an insightful and unique story that places itself within the ranks of contemporary world classics to watch out for. The fact that this novel is about a freed slave and the Spanish gypsy community intrigued me; I like reading about little-known communities, and this is one community I feel has been silenced throughout history. So if you like new and unique subject-matter in your novels, particularly your historical fiction, this book is one you should check out.
Falcones’s writing is top-notch; however, this is quite a dense read linguistically. I’m not sure if this is due to the fact that this is a translation from the Spanish (I have not seen the original to be certain), or if this is due to simply poor editing. The narrative also tends to fall historical digressions in many places, where Falcones would attempt to clue the reader into what a place used to be, what it might have been used for, and so on. Unfortunately, this ends up interrupting the overall flow of the story to the point of being quite boring. I would prefer to work my way through the original in the hopes that the writing was more engaging, but I’m not sure this issue is the fault of the book being a translation. Yet in all of this, Falcones still presents a vivid portrayal of his characters, a freed slave and a Spanish gypsy, and 18th-century Spain, and I found the perspective and voice authentic and poignant.
Between the two female characters, I found Caridad more interesting and sympathetic in terms of getting to experience Spanish culture of this time through an “outsider’s” perspective and as one who eventually is drawn into it. She finds a place to exist where before she had none. She finds her humanity in a place that allows her some way to be human, to no longer be a slave, but to simply be Caridad. I found drawn to her most of all.
This brings me to another issue I had with this book: Falcones’s pervasive sexualization of his female characters. For example, two chapters into the book I encountered a rather vile rape scene that left me alienated and angry. This scenes (and I’m leaving out names and details to avoid spoilers) is void of all emotion and insight on the part of the narrator/author. While I understand that rape can often lack emotion, there should be something felt by someone. Where’s the anger? Where’s the feelings of defilement, violation, shame, despair? There was none of this during or after. What’s more, the scene did not even need to be there; it served no purpose. The scene could have been omitted and would not have taken anything away from the story. Subsequent scenes of her being taken against her will by another man who keeps her in his basement to charge other men to take advantage of her was also unnecessary. Not to mention that through a lot of the story, Caridad and Milagros inspire so much lust and desire that men are described as masturbating or otherwise finding pleasure in fantasizing about them. I understand they’re beautiful women–fine–but the rest of it is unnecessary. I felt like the lustful sexualization was meant to express how beautiful the women in the book are, but this could have been done in other ways.
With this issue aside, Falcones’s novel is overall a solid piece of historical fiction. I found it well-written, though quite dense; the subject and characters are unique and fresh, and the insight with which Falcones writes is to be respected. I like that over the course of the novel, we experience and take part in the transformation of Spain at this time in history. I learned about people in a country and time-period I previously knew so little about. In spite of the quality writing and unique perspective, it all fell flat for me because it just lacks that something that left me unable to engage like I want to, and found it a struggle to continue reading. Finally, in the midst of all this I grew alienated from the text because of the sexualization of the female characters. However, I have to reiterate that this is still a book worth reading; hardcore historical fiction lovers will love this, and maybe even history buffs for Falcones’s attention to the gypsies of 18th-century Spain, a culture that doesn’t get a lot written about it in fiction. Just keep in mind the sexual nature of some of the novel’s content and the fact that the narrative takes time and attention to get through for its density.