From Los Angeles in the nineteenth century to Spain during the Franco-Spain war, through a colonial Cuba to a seedy and louche New Orleans and onto the high seas. The themes and topics covered in this book are so diverse and rich that every page is a treat. We witness de la Vega fall deeply in unrequited love, honour the friendship of his milk-brother and go through the rites a young man must face as well as discovering his alter-ego Zorro and finding the purpose of his life. This book charts the childhood of Diego de la Vega of as the son of a Shoshone warrior and a wealthy aristocratic Spaniard and his adolescence in Spain learning the ways of a caballero, or gentleman. The story is the well-known legend of Zorro, the masked hero who has promised to fight against injustice wherever he finds it and begins some years before he is even born. Although Allende is famous for “House of Spirits”, her writing has not really registered on my radar and I had no expectations except for the hope that this wasn’t the usual bodice-busting historical drama I avoid or a dry western. Long-Suffering Sister introduced me to Isabel Allende and I find that she is rarely emphatic about a book, so I thought this author would be worth checking out.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |