A review by violinknitter
You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This is not the kind of book I typically read. But somewhere on social media someone complained about a racist review of it in the New York Times, and then recommended a review by Silvia Moreno-Garcia in the LA Times instead. 

Moreno-Garcia I *do* read, and her review convinced me to try this book. And I’m glad I did! It has a moody and almost pointilistic in texture, and I found the characters fascinating. Not likeable, but that wasn’t the intention.   

It took me a bit to get used to the complete absence of any dialogue punctuation, and the sff muscle-memory of being dumped into a world where many of the names & words are unfamiliar served me well. (While I was wondering to myself “why AM I so unfamiliar with so much of this? I’m a lover of history, and it’s literally the country next to mine!”)

Anyway, I think it was well worth the read. 
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