Customer Reviews

The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman: A Novel

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This books is part of a trillogy of books set in a mythical South American country, which is never given a name. Like the other books of the trillogy, it is mostly concerened with the citizens of the city Conchebajo de los Gatos. A city populated with extremely unique and well drawn characters. De Bernieres obviously has a great love for his people, and you get to know all of them very well if you read the entire trilogy. The novel is not a linear story, but a collection of incidents and descriptions of events, some extremely funny, some, like the river overflowing with the corpses of murderd street children, paint a poinient potrait of the social problems of South American cities. Not a light wait romp but a powerfull portrait of south american life, with a good dose of humor and magic thrown in.

Having said that, you would be mutch better off starting at the beggining of the trilogy, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts. The Neather Parts introduces you to all the characters properly, and is I believe a better book. Both funnier and more diverse in it's stories. If you like Don Emmanuel's, then go on to read this.

A melange of light fantasy with history can provide entertaining reading. In hands of an innovative stylist like de Bernieres, the read is far more - "invigorating" becomes a soft term. His facile style and comprehensive imagination produces a story of limitless value. While steeped in the real world, he introduces a new version of what has been termed "magical reality". Events have a historical base, characters are real, or are at least plausible composites. You are reading history through only slightly distorting spectacles. The deformation allows him to shift from history to parody. Under his skillful touch, nothing in the image is lost, but a wealth of insight is gained.

In this final volume of a trilogy, he depicts the life of a Latin American cardinal - a "prince of the church". Guzman suffers terrible pains and horrific visions. Demons, each with a particular role to play, appear to torment him. He's virtually incapacitated during these attacks. The ministrations of his mistress, Conception [what else?], are futile attempts at the application of folk medicine. Only their son, Cristobal, seems capable of alleviating the Cardinal's agonies. Yet even this happy therapy provides fresh challenges to the cleric. Guzman's familial problems aren't limited to this illegitimate child.

Key chapters in this volume are comprised of a letter to the Cardinal from The Holy Office. The letter aptly summarises the career and impact of the Church in his domain. It's a wonderfully scathing account of the hypocrisies perpetrated upon people in the name of divinity. Part of Guzman's tribulations relate to the letter and its account of the country. You will be returned to it from time to time.

While the Cardinal suffers, the population of a mythical city, Cochadebajo de los Gatos [look it up] find themselves under siege. They have a special relationship with the region's jaguar population, who act as an enlarged, and rather more accommodating, version of the domestic house cat. The siege allows de Bernieres to introduce yet another anomalous character in the person of the British Ambassador. After reading about his antics and treatment by the locals, it says something for British forbearance that de Bernieres was allowed to take up a London
residence.

De Bernieres' view of Latin America is, dare it be said, "catholic". He incorporates the Conquistidore traditions, the mixed roles of the Church, from hierarchical absolutist through evangelical zealots to radical Marxist reformers. The Indian population, mestizos, a lone Mexican, legions of peasants, aloof aristocrats all enter the stage. Few leave unbesmirched, usually through their own actions. Even the nation's President and his bizarre wife are woven adroitly into the narrative. No leader of a "banana republic" could suffer more at the hands of rebel forces than President Veracruz. De Bernieres gives him a slogan rich in irony, given the circumstances: "Democracy Is Safe In Our Hands".

This author has produced a string of successful works, with each seeming to outshine the preceding volume. Having accidentally picked up the third volume of this trilogy, it lost nothing in the reading due to ignorance of the previous books. Take up this, or any of de Bernieres books, secure in the knowledge that you will be shocked, entertained, enlightened and pleased you made the choice. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The brilliance of this book lies in the writer's ability to allow you to suspend all preconceived notions of reality. Set in a country obviously modelled on Colombia, this is at the same time like no place you have ever encountered. It is a fantastic place where 300-year old conquistadores are brought back to life; the dead speak to the living and marry and raise dead families with nobody showing any surprise. Ostensibly it is the tale of a corrupt country imploding upon itself with extreme violence while its leaders indulge their vices, all in the name of religion. However, the heart of the book and its brilliance, is in the little people: the inhabitants of Cochedebajo de los Gatos. Surrounded by anarchy, bigotry and violence theirs is the ideal society: free, supporting, loving with a rich sense of humour and prepared, when pushed, to fight to keep evil outside their world. It is this example of how people should live that raises this book from a jolly good read into the realms of the truly great.

I am very pleased that I came to Louis De Bernieres via Captain Corelli's Mandolin and not through this book. If it had been the other way around I might not have had the pleasure of reading one of the best novels of the last decade. This book did not deliver the full majesty of his writing ability.

While De Bernieres once again demonstrates his wonderful literary style, I found this work a little too bizarre to be classed as great. His humour is well balanced and the narrative was for the most part coherent but somehow this didn't 'do it' for me. I found myself only mildly interested in how the story would finish and perhaps because of its 'magical' if not surreal nature, I found it difficult to connect.

I also found that being completely ignorant of South America and all things Hispanic, I kept forgetting who were the main protagonists and what were their particular idiosyncracies.

By all means read this, but even if you don't like it, don't let it put you off Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

I came upon this book before the first two, but that has only slightly dimmed my enjoyment of it. I only wish that I had the full background of the characters that are in the first two books. This is a truly delightful book, full of magic and truth, but not at all the sort of mystical drivel I expect out of "Magical realism." Playful and sarcastic at turns, it is also a delightful world that I not only delighted in dropping in on, but one I wish I could be in. Excellent!

Unfortunately this ends the series. I want to keep reading about these crazy people. This is a trilogy that MUST be read in order (1. The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts; 2. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord). Without the first two parts, this book will make no sense at all. The author managed to hold my attention through all three volumes (most series seem to tail off after the first one). Though the books are commentaries on South American government/military/society they are driven by the characters. You can mentally see them as they go through the pleasures, pitfalls & perils of their lives. I was sorry to see the story end.

The exotic outpourings of Mr de Bermieres' mind rarely disappoint. If you want to discover the magic of Latin America, save yourself the airfare and buy this book instead. Travel to a land of magical realism, where jaguars are domestic pets, men transform themselves into eagles, and dead children are reincarnated as hummingbirds. Mr de Bernieres travels in the footsteps of a modern-day inquisition in which doctrinal certitude is accompanied by unswerving brutality. Both are described in language which ranges from the poetic to the scientific. The juxtaposition of passages of lyrcial emotion with clinical descriptions of extreme violence often shock, but never fail to move. If Mr de Bernieres has a fault, it is in his disappointing denouements. His stories flash brilliantly, but fade away improbably. The pleasure is in the journey rather than the arrival

De Bernieres, who wrote the magnificent "Corelli's Mandolin" (see my review below, 1/99), has hit upon another culture in another fantasy. The Troubling Offspring is a wild convoluted tale involving the bizzare characters of, primarily, Cochadebajo (de los Gatos), an imaginary Andean pueblo. De Bernieres, who spent many years in Columbia, has managed to build a tragicomedy involving all of those very real aspects of the South American existence: screwy and corrupt politics, the screwy and corrupt church, and a certain amount of mysticism. The plot begins when the Cardinal decides that another Inquisition is due for the heathens of the mountain villages. The Cochedebajeros (described as a collection of "macho philosophers, defrocked priests, and slightly reformed prostitutes cohabiting in 'cheerful' anarchy") use some of the strangest ammunition imaginable to fight off the holy crusaders. The humor in this novel strikes at every turn, with chapters entitled, for example, "In which his Excellency, President Veracruz, wins the General Election without rigging it too much," or, "In which Felicidad's Gyrating backside Provokes Hostilities, " or, "An Apocalypse of Embarrassment Strikes the City," Oh, like much of De Bernieres, this book is a silly romp through what might otherwise be a serious subject.

You must read. Start with Don Emmanuel's Nether Regions, the Senor Vivo and the Coca Lords, and by the time you close this book, you will have felt like you have gone somewhere far away- and met amazing people. His writing is THAT fantastic.

I am new to Louis De Bernieres. I've read only two of his books, but recommend his work strongly. The characters seem real and the writing is well done - plain in a good way.

The overall impression for me is one of honest writing, which could almost have been depressing or preachy, except for the strength of the characters, and yes it is a funny book.