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El Sueño Del Celta (2010)

by Mario Vargas Llosa(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1616052465 (ISBN13: 9781616052461)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Alfaguara

review 1: Biographie romancée de Sir Roger Casement, diplômate pour le Royaume Uni, exécuté pour trahison après s’être allié avec l’Allemagne pendant la Première Guerre Mondiale, dans l’espoir d’obtenir un soutien lors de l’Easter Rising et d’amener l’Irlande vers l’indépendance. Intéressant, informatif sur l’histoire du Congo et de l’Irlande. Seul hic, les parties sur le Congo et l’Amazonie se ressemblent, ce qui crée un effet de répétition un peu lassant. L’écriture (en traduction en anglais) est agréable à lire. Ce roman me donne envie d’en apprendre plus sur l’Histoire de l’Irlande.
review 2: Review that I posted on the Goodreads Ireland discussion thread"Well despite having had the book out from the library for 6 week an... mored having been the one to nominate it, I didn't finish this until yesterday due to an incredibly hectic June.I struggled with whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars. I ultimately gave it 3 because I thought a well done biography could have actually given us just a good of a sense of Casement's life, motivations, and feelings, as did this fictionalized biography. I could have given it 4 stars if Llosa had taken better advantage of the literary form. I found the quote "That was history, a branch of fable writing attempting to be science." interesting. Did Llosa write his book about Casement as a fictionalized biography, because he feels that the telling of history is always distorted anyway?Another favorite quote of mine was having Casement say "Though it seems obscene to establish hierarchies among crimes of this magnitude." That one seems like it could be a direct quotation from Casement's writings. I would have liked to have seen an afterward that talked about Llosa's research and writing processI was bothered by the passages that described Casement lusting after boys. I'm not sure what historical evidence he had that the objections of Casement's fantasies (or actual encounters) were teens. I was also a bit bothered by Casement's tendency to romanticize(or Llosa's tendency to have Casement romanticize) the natives of the Amazon as closer to nature and less prudish. One problem with it being a work of fiction and not a biography, was that it made it harder to tell what was conjecture on the part of the author.Unlike most people, I enjoyed the Congo section better than the Amazonia section, perhaps because it was more succinct. I also was more familiar (but just a tiny bit) with the history of Congo and Belgian colonialism (and its recent historical and present day reverberations) than I was with the Amazonia region.It was also interesting that Casement knew the author Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness was one of my favorite books I read in high school. I think I may be due to for a reread of it soon. The question of what drives men to commit horrific acts is one which Casement, Conrad, and Llosa are all concerned with.Overall I thought this book was a solid introduction to a historical figure I knew nothing about. I'm glad to have read it. I would be extremely interested in checking out the book Alan mentioned that's a side by side comparison of the White and Black diaries.Finally, can anyone recommend a good biography of either Patrick Pearse or Joseph Plunkett? I'd also be interested in a book on Cumann na mBan." less

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