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A review by lauralhart
The Black Cathedral by Marcial Gala
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
One day the pigeons will take over the unfinished cathedral, they'll smother it with their wings, and when that day comes, I'm going to be in Cienfuegos to see it. Then time will pass, I will die, and with me everyone who lived in this time, but the photos will remain. Then the photos will die, along with anyone who can decipher a human face; later on, the heat will rise, and all of Cuba will end up underwater, and with Cuba, the cathedral; but later, when everything dries up and nothing remains, and the extraterrestrial voyagers find it, how will they know that this cathedral was never finished? They will think that it was once the main temple of a city of a happy beings and that the parishioners' children once ran down its aisles, and over the course of time, will it matter that it wasn't like that?
Filled to the brim with extreme violence, which slowed my reading significantly, and which made the reveal at the end—what each of the characters had been referring to as a singular, horrific event—disappointing, pale in comparison to acts committed previously in the book. The characters’ sexism and homophobia were particularly difficult to continue reading. I also wanted the characters’ voices to be more distinct—there were only 2 or 3 that stood out—but perhaps that wasn’t the intention. While not a novel I will return to, this was overall an interesting look at the effects of hate, corruption, and religion on a modern Cuban town.
Filled to the brim with extreme violence, which slowed my reading significantly, and which made the reveal at the end—what each of the characters had been referring to as a singular, horrific event—disappointing, pale in comparison to acts committed previously in the book. The characters’ sexism and homophobia were particularly difficult to continue reading. I also wanted the characters’ voices to be more distinct—there were only 2 or 3 that stood out—but perhaps that wasn’t the intention. While not a novel I will return to, this was overall an interesting look at the effects of hate, corruption, and religion on a modern Cuban town.