Cervantes Street

July 9, 2012
Novelist, essayist, and poet Manrique (Our Lives Are the Rivers) reimagines the already larger than life true story of Miguel de Cervantes, who flees Madrid after a near-fatal duel, loses use of his left hand in battle, is kidnapped and sold into slavery by pirates, who believe he “will fetch a good ransom because he’s a war hero” and, finally, pens the masterwork Don Quixote. Too good a story to be true? Perhaps, but what Manrique is really interested in is not the sensationalism of Cervantes’s life but his star-crossed relationship with Luis de Lara, who lacks Cervantes’ talent and heart, but gets the money and the girl. Neither man is satisfied with his lot in life, and they compete and support each other in turn, both jealous of what the other man possesses (Manrique assumes both points of view). Manrique adopts a florid, epic style for his tale of 16th-century Spain, one with the quality of a tall tale told by a troubadour rather than written on the page. He ably captures the human qualities of the legendary writer, as well as his swashbuckling, and explores the downside of artistic talent, even offering a theory about the origins of the false Don Quixote. Agent: Thomas Colchie.

August 1, 2012

Nine years after the successful first part of Don Quixote appeared, a pseudonymous Fernandez de Avellaneda published a spurious sequel, a vastly inferior work that today is considered merely a literary curiosity. The identity of the author continues to elude scholars. The premise here is that he was Luis de Lara, a former friend of Cervantes who accused him of stealing his honor, an offense for which he seeks revenge. The novel alternates between a fictionalized autobiography of Cervantes that accurately re-creates the major incidents of his life--e.g., his bravery during the naval battle of Lepanto, captivity as a hostage in an Algerian prison, and penurious existence as a tax collector--and de Lara's narration of his obsessive revenge. Manrique (My Night with Federico Garcia Lorca) has penned a well-written, well-researched, fast-paced narrative, though he does engage in poetic license by having Lara Street in downtown Madrid renamed Cervantes Street--thematically ironic but untrue. VERDICT An entertaining book with a broader appeal than the title might otherwise indicate because of its theme of artistic envy and a superb retelling of Cervantes's life.--Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH

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