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A review by girlvsbookshelf
The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa
4.0
“Slowly his compatriots became resigned to accepting that a hero and martyr is not an abstract prototype or a model of perfection but a human being made of contradictions and contrast, weakness and greatness”
This is an odd book - purportedly a fictionalised account of the life of Roger Casement, it definitely feels more like a straight biography, with lots of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ of events. I found the start of the book about Casement’s work in the Belgian Congo to be quite dry & slow-going. Things picked up later in the book, though, and I became quite immersed in the story of his time in Peru and his involvement in Irish nationalism. What a life he led. There is lots of food for thought about the muddying of the waters between humanitarianism and colonialism, the fine line between patriotism and nationalism, and the lasting impact that homophobia has had on this man’s legacy.
This is an odd book - purportedly a fictionalised account of the life of Roger Casement, it definitely feels more like a straight biography, with lots of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ of events. I found the start of the book about Casement’s work in the Belgian Congo to be quite dry & slow-going. Things picked up later in the book, though, and I became quite immersed in the story of his time in Peru and his involvement in Irish nationalism. What a life he led. There is lots of food for thought about the muddying of the waters between humanitarianism and colonialism, the fine line between patriotism and nationalism, and the lasting impact that homophobia has had on this man’s legacy.