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Cervantes Street
A Latinidad List Best Book of 2012
"Cervantes Street is exciting to read...Under Mr. Manrique's pen, the world of renaissance Spain and the Mediterranean is made vivid, its surface cracking with sudden violence and cruelty...This novel can be read as a generous salute across the centuries from one writer to another, as a sympathetic homage and recommendation...Cervantes Street brings to life the real world behind the fantastic exploits of the knight of La Mancha. The comic mishaps are funnier for being based in fact. The romantic adventures are more affecting. Cervantes Street has sent me back to Don Quixote.
-- The Wall Street Journal
"Manrique adopts a florid, epic style for his tale of 16th-century Spain, one with the quality of a 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."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Manrique has penned a well-written, well-researched, fast-paced narrative ... An entertaining book ... and a superb retlling of Cervantes's life."
-- Library Journal
"Cervantes Street is historical fiction at its best. Compact and intense... The characters are wonderfully draw, the environments are detailed and colorful and the feeling is genuine... a gripping, adventuresome novel with profound insight into the ways in which we choose our destiny."
-- New York Journal of Books
“The novel is exciting, paced well, interesting and with a literary mystery to boot.”
-- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Hold onto your hats because Manrique has crafted a brilliant pastiche... This fun, diverting, swift odyssey into Cervantes' travels... puts tall tales where they belong, in capable fiction... Cervantes Street should be in your hands."
--La Bloga
"A sprawling vivacious big-hearted novel. Manrique is fantastically talented and this is perhaps his masterpiece."
--Junot Díaz
The actual facts of Miguel de Cervantes's life seem to be snatched from an epic tale: an impoverished and talented young poet nearly kills a man in a duel and is forced into exile; later, he distinguishes himself in battle and is severely wounded, losing the use of his left hand; on his way back to Spain his ship is captured by pirates and he is sold into slavery in Algiers; after prolonged imprisonment and failed escape attempts, he makes his way back home, eventually settling in a remote village in La Mancha to create his masterpiece, the first modern novel in Western literature: Don Quixote.
Taking the bare bones of Cervantes' life, Jaime Manrique has accomplished a singular feat: an engaging and highly accessible take on a brilliant, enigmatic man and his epoch. This is an archetypal tale of rivalry and revenge—featuring Cervantes's antagonistic relationship with the man who would go on to write his own sequel to Don Quixote—that is sure to garner comparisons to Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, and, with its extraordinary recreation of the life and times of Cervantes, to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
Jaime Manrique is a novelist, essayist, and poet. His critically acclaimed novels include Latin Moon in Manhattan and Our Lives Are the Rivers. He is a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the City College of New York.
"Cervantes Street is exciting to read...Under Mr. Manrique's pen, the world of renaissance Spain and the Mediterranean is made vivid, its surface cracking with sudden violence and cruelty...This novel can be read as a generous salute across the centuries from one writer to another, as a sympathetic homage and recommendation...Cervantes Street brings to life the real world behind the fantastic exploits of the knight of La Mancha. The comic mishaps are funnier for being based in fact. The romantic adventures are more affecting. Cervantes Street has sent me back to Don Quixote.
-- The Wall Street Journal
"Manrique adopts a florid, epic style for his tale of 16th-century Spain, one with the quality of a 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."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Manrique has penned a well-written, well-researched, fast-paced narrative ... An entertaining book ... and a superb retlling of Cervantes's life."
-- Library Journal
"Cervantes Street is historical fiction at its best. Compact and intense... The characters are wonderfully draw, the environments are detailed and colorful and the feeling is genuine... a gripping, adventuresome novel with profound insight into the ways in which we choose our destiny."
-- New York Journal of Books
“The novel is exciting, paced well, interesting and with a literary mystery to boot.”
-- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Hold onto your hats because Manrique has crafted a brilliant pastiche... This fun, diverting, swift odyssey into Cervantes' travels... puts tall tales where they belong, in capable fiction... Cervantes Street should be in your hands."
--La Bloga
"A sprawling vivacious big-hearted novel. Manrique is fantastically talented and this is perhaps his masterpiece."
--Junot Díaz
The actual facts of Miguel de Cervantes's life seem to be snatched from an epic tale: an impoverished and talented young poet nearly kills a man in a duel and is forced into exile; later, he distinguishes himself in battle and is severely wounded, losing the use of his left hand; on his way back to Spain his ship is captured by pirates and he is sold into slavery in Algiers; after prolonged imprisonment and failed escape attempts, he makes his way back home, eventually settling in a remote village in La Mancha to create his masterpiece, the first modern novel in Western literature: Don Quixote.
Taking the bare bones of Cervantes' life, Jaime Manrique has accomplished a singular feat: an engaging and highly accessible take on a brilliant, enigmatic man and his epoch. This is an archetypal tale of rivalry and revenge—featuring Cervantes's antagonistic relationship with the man who would go on to write his own sequel to Don Quixote—that is sure to garner comparisons to Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, and, with its extraordinary recreation of the life and times of Cervantes, to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
Jaime Manrique is a novelist, essayist, and poet. His critically acclaimed novels include Latin Moon in Manhattan and Our Lives Are the Rivers. He is a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the City College of New York.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 17, 2012
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170 people want to read
About the author
Jaime Manrique
25 books39 followersJaime Manrique (16 June 1949 - ) Colombian American author, poet, and journalist.
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March 14, 2013
When I reached the end of Cervantes Street, I have to ask this question: Did I learn anything about Cervantes or Don Quixote that I didn’t know before? The answer, it seems, is no.
Jaime Manrique has certainly written an ambitious book whose pages cover virtually the entire life of Miguel de Cervantes. Through the eyes of Cervantes himself, and then through the alternating first person narration by Luis Lara, Manrique examines Cervantes from two perspectives, from two entirely different hearts. Luis, a fictitious character, is initially sympathetic to his poor, young friend Cervantes, a product of the lower classes of Spanish society, but when they fall for the same woman, the friendship ends. Choked with jealousy, Luis is haunted by the free-spirited Miguel to the day of his death. Luis’s slow descent into madness dominates much of the story, but, in my opinion, the pages devoted to Luis only serve to take away from the far more interesting story that is Miguel de Cervantes. I applaud the technique of inventing a fictitious character, a figment of the author’s imagination, who serves as a witness to and a chronicler of historical events. Francesco della Rovere plays this role in my novel, The Pope’s Man. But technique alone is not sufficient; Manrique fails to make Luis anything more than a foil for Cervantes, anything more than a two-dimensional character who represents the worst of “Old” Spain and its obsession with purity of the blood. Luis is bitter, but he is never alive. We see him wither on the vine, but it means nothing because Manrique never gave us any reason to like him in the first place.
Manrique writes in a florid style, and sometimes I think this style is way overdone. Take this sentence
My mount snorted; the pounding of its hooves on the pebbly ground pierced the quiet of the Manchegan countryside and echoed with painful intensity in my head.
Sentences like this one are not the bedrock of good novels, in my opinion. It might even be cited in June Casagrande’s little guide. I would write the sentence this way
My mount snorted; the pounding of its hooves echoed painfully inside my head.
I read a short essay about Cervantes Street (I usually refrain from reading other people’s opinions because I can easily be swayed by them, but I wasn’t as confident and needed corroboration) and this reviewer said that Manrique was writing in an embellished style that was more reflective of Cervante’s time than our own. If this is the case, I compliment him for his attention to historical and literary detail.
I also found the first hundred pages or so of the novel to be a little turbid. The story of the love tryst between Cervantes, Luis, and Mercedes is bland. The way that Cervantes bonds with his gypsy captors is a little hard to believe, and so is his affect on the Cardinal, who tells Cervantes that “he will always have a home in his household.” Was he already such a celebrity? Even the depiction of Battle of Lepanto is strained and painted rather than felt. Cervantes becomes a religious devotee overnight, it seems, and his willing to fight and die for God against the heathen Turk. He was evicted from his homeland because of his uncertain ancestry; does a man like that really want to die for the cross?
Manrique hits his stride when Cervantes is captured by the corsairs. The description of the squalor and hopelessness of the bagnio shows the author at his best. While reading this chapter, I really felt like I was there with Cervantes in the Kasbah of Algiers. During the naval battle, Manrique could do not better than to make me feel like a spectator, but in bagnio I could see myself standing knee deep in sea water, begging for an urchin to relieve my hunger pangs. In this section, we are introduced to the figure of Sancho Panza. Nothing could be more crucial to the success of Cervantes Street than Manrique’s development of the character who would become the knight errant’s side kick. One particular line from this chapter captured my attention. I think that Manrique is guilty of telling the reader rather than relying on showing when he writes
Many years later, I realized that thanks to my imprisonment in Algiers, I had met my second most fictional character.
This is an obvious fact; why else would Manrique include a Sancho Panza in the story unless he was the source of future inspiration? Curious that he felt the need to make the point so bluntly. In fact, Manrique does this several times when Cervantes is speaking about the relationship between the people he meets and the characters he invents. I don’t think the story is any better for it.
One of Manrique’s themes is what kind of life creates an environment for successful writing, and what kind of a man becomes a renowned writer. We see early on, or at least we can guess, that once the things go awry between Luis and Cervantes, the former is going to get his revenge by writing the phony sequel. Luis considers himself a superior writer by virtue of his breeding and his knowledge of Latin and the classics. Luis is wrong, and the reader gets an early glimpse of just how wrong when he says
There you have the main difference between Miguel and me as writers. Miguel lacked imagination; he was just a borrower from life, whereas I came to develop the conviction that true literature is not an excuse for poorly disguised autobiography. In the degenerate times in which I had been condemned to live, that was not apparent to anyone. But in the future, I was convinced, the truly great writers would be those who wrote anew—and not just rewrote—stories that needed to be perfected. In the future, all long, tedious novels—including Miguel’s Don Quixote—would be whittled down to their essence, so that the whole story could be told in a handful of pages.
This is a brilliant line by Manrique, because much of what he says—the need to write new stories, the need to get to the essence—is correct, at least to modern tastes in literature. Lara is dead wrong when it comes to Don Quixote, but we figure out that Manrique is making precisely this point by saying the opposite with words that come from the mouth of that erudite failure. The main difference between Lara and Cervantes is this: Cervantes understood human nature and embraced it, while Lara, embittered by a life that was a hundred times easier than the one endured by Cervantes, could not rise above his selfishness and see beyond the gates of his mansion.
Manrique is guilty of two glaring anachronisms. When he describes the school experience shared by Cervantes and Lara early in the novel, he resorts to a modern interpretation of the school day, not an ancient one. I doubt if anyone is Spain in the mid 1500s went off to school in the morning and then completed their home work in the evening. Even the equivalent of today’s elementary schools were institutions where the students often boarded and spent long hours behind a desk. Manrique writes as if the day ended at three o’clock with plenty of time for after school frolicking. Later in the story, he carefully lists all of the food that was prepared for a banquet, but he leaves out the most common food served even at the most elaborate banquets (at least banquets in Italy that I have studied): eel, mice, hedgehog, groundhog, all kinds of song birds. His menu wets the appetite of a modern reader but leaves out medieval delicacies that we would find repugnant.
To conclude, I return to my opening statement. This novel did not reveal anything new about either Cervantes or Don Quixote. Cervantes Street did not open a door into the great author’s mind that allowed me to look past the obvious and see the obscure. Maybe Manrique’s story is too predictable; maybe the line he draws across hundreds of pages that connects his characters to Cervantes’s is too straight. Then again, maybe Cervantes has raised the bar so high any attempts to emulate him will fail. Or it.
Jaime Manrique has certainly written an ambitious book whose pages cover virtually the entire life of Miguel de Cervantes. Through the eyes of Cervantes himself, and then through the alternating first person narration by Luis Lara, Manrique examines Cervantes from two perspectives, from two entirely different hearts. Luis, a fictitious character, is initially sympathetic to his poor, young friend Cervantes, a product of the lower classes of Spanish society, but when they fall for the same woman, the friendship ends. Choked with jealousy, Luis is haunted by the free-spirited Miguel to the day of his death. Luis’s slow descent into madness dominates much of the story, but, in my opinion, the pages devoted to Luis only serve to take away from the far more interesting story that is Miguel de Cervantes. I applaud the technique of inventing a fictitious character, a figment of the author’s imagination, who serves as a witness to and a chronicler of historical events. Francesco della Rovere plays this role in my novel, The Pope’s Man. But technique alone is not sufficient; Manrique fails to make Luis anything more than a foil for Cervantes, anything more than a two-dimensional character who represents the worst of “Old” Spain and its obsession with purity of the blood. Luis is bitter, but he is never alive. We see him wither on the vine, but it means nothing because Manrique never gave us any reason to like him in the first place.
Manrique writes in a florid style, and sometimes I think this style is way overdone. Take this sentence
My mount snorted; the pounding of its hooves on the pebbly ground pierced the quiet of the Manchegan countryside and echoed with painful intensity in my head.
Sentences like this one are not the bedrock of good novels, in my opinion. It might even be cited in June Casagrande’s little guide. I would write the sentence this way
My mount snorted; the pounding of its hooves echoed painfully inside my head.
I read a short essay about Cervantes Street (I usually refrain from reading other people’s opinions because I can easily be swayed by them, but I wasn’t as confident and needed corroboration) and this reviewer said that Manrique was writing in an embellished style that was more reflective of Cervante’s time than our own. If this is the case, I compliment him for his attention to historical and literary detail.
I also found the first hundred pages or so of the novel to be a little turbid. The story of the love tryst between Cervantes, Luis, and Mercedes is bland. The way that Cervantes bonds with his gypsy captors is a little hard to believe, and so is his affect on the Cardinal, who tells Cervantes that “he will always have a home in his household.” Was he already such a celebrity? Even the depiction of Battle of Lepanto is strained and painted rather than felt. Cervantes becomes a religious devotee overnight, it seems, and his willing to fight and die for God against the heathen Turk. He was evicted from his homeland because of his uncertain ancestry; does a man like that really want to die for the cross?
Manrique hits his stride when Cervantes is captured by the corsairs. The description of the squalor and hopelessness of the bagnio shows the author at his best. While reading this chapter, I really felt like I was there with Cervantes in the Kasbah of Algiers. During the naval battle, Manrique could do not better than to make me feel like a spectator, but in bagnio I could see myself standing knee deep in sea water, begging for an urchin to relieve my hunger pangs. In this section, we are introduced to the figure of Sancho Panza. Nothing could be more crucial to the success of Cervantes Street than Manrique’s development of the character who would become the knight errant’s side kick. One particular line from this chapter captured my attention. I think that Manrique is guilty of telling the reader rather than relying on showing when he writes
Many years later, I realized that thanks to my imprisonment in Algiers, I had met my second most fictional character.
This is an obvious fact; why else would Manrique include a Sancho Panza in the story unless he was the source of future inspiration? Curious that he felt the need to make the point so bluntly. In fact, Manrique does this several times when Cervantes is speaking about the relationship between the people he meets and the characters he invents. I don’t think the story is any better for it.
One of Manrique’s themes is what kind of life creates an environment for successful writing, and what kind of a man becomes a renowned writer. We see early on, or at least we can guess, that once the things go awry between Luis and Cervantes, the former is going to get his revenge by writing the phony sequel. Luis considers himself a superior writer by virtue of his breeding and his knowledge of Latin and the classics. Luis is wrong, and the reader gets an early glimpse of just how wrong when he says
There you have the main difference between Miguel and me as writers. Miguel lacked imagination; he was just a borrower from life, whereas I came to develop the conviction that true literature is not an excuse for poorly disguised autobiography. In the degenerate times in which I had been condemned to live, that was not apparent to anyone. But in the future, I was convinced, the truly great writers would be those who wrote anew—and not just rewrote—stories that needed to be perfected. In the future, all long, tedious novels—including Miguel’s Don Quixote—would be whittled down to their essence, so that the whole story could be told in a handful of pages.
This is a brilliant line by Manrique, because much of what he says—the need to write new stories, the need to get to the essence—is correct, at least to modern tastes in literature. Lara is dead wrong when it comes to Don Quixote, but we figure out that Manrique is making precisely this point by saying the opposite with words that come from the mouth of that erudite failure. The main difference between Lara and Cervantes is this: Cervantes understood human nature and embraced it, while Lara, embittered by a life that was a hundred times easier than the one endured by Cervantes, could not rise above his selfishness and see beyond the gates of his mansion.
Manrique is guilty of two glaring anachronisms. When he describes the school experience shared by Cervantes and Lara early in the novel, he resorts to a modern interpretation of the school day, not an ancient one. I doubt if anyone is Spain in the mid 1500s went off to school in the morning and then completed their home work in the evening. Even the equivalent of today’s elementary schools were institutions where the students often boarded and spent long hours behind a desk. Manrique writes as if the day ended at three o’clock with plenty of time for after school frolicking. Later in the story, he carefully lists all of the food that was prepared for a banquet, but he leaves out the most common food served even at the most elaborate banquets (at least banquets in Italy that I have studied): eel, mice, hedgehog, groundhog, all kinds of song birds. His menu wets the appetite of a modern reader but leaves out medieval delicacies that we would find repugnant.
To conclude, I return to my opening statement. This novel did not reveal anything new about either Cervantes or Don Quixote. Cervantes Street did not open a door into the great author’s mind that allowed me to look past the obvious and see the obscure. Maybe Manrique’s story is too predictable; maybe the line he draws across hundreds of pages that connects his characters to Cervantes’s is too straight. Then again, maybe Cervantes has raised the bar so high any attempts to emulate him will fail. Or it.
October 4, 2015
Beautiful novel, which tries to fill in and explain the mysteries and missing parts in the biography of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. The writing is superb, bringing to life all of the scents, flavors and sights of old Spain, Algiers and other places, as well as creating fully-developed characters, convincing and human. For a literary novel, it is a page-turner, un-put-downable and suspenseful. A jewel of a book.
May 29, 2023
An interesting blend of history, imagination, the little that is known about the life of Cervantes, and the events/characters of Don Quixote. I found the ending a bit rushed, but overall an enjoyable piece of historical fiction! Knowledge of the Quixote is not required, but does enhance the experience.
November 17, 2012
Brilliant, spellbinding from beginning to end, makes you think you're living in an extension of the universe imagined by Cervantes in Don Quixote.
The book has alternating chapters. Half of them are in the first person by Cervantes and tell his life story from birth to death, focusing on his fleeing from Spain following a bar room brawl, coming to Italy, fighting in the battle of Lepanto, and his time in captivity in Algiers. Many of the elements and characters he encounters are refashioned into Don Quixote, although the persiod when he was in and out of jail and writing his masterpiece basically take place off stage.
The other half of the chapters are primarily by what I believe is a fictional character, Luis Lara, a wealthy aristocrat who befriends Cervantes, ultimately becomes obsessively jealous of him, and writes the famous, false Don Quixote Part II--an unauthorized sequel to Don Quixote that appeared prior to Cervantes own continuation. Luis is fascinating because he feels his greater education and literary background make him superior to Cervantes gutter humor. The final chapter is narrated by Luis's servant--which gives yet another perspective on the entire story.
Cervantes Street can be read as a fast-paced adventure story, a running commentary on Don Quixote, a historical biopic, or an interesting piece of speculative fiction. The writing itself is extremely good and is sprinkled throughout with borrowing from Don Quixote and other Cervantes writing which are woven effortlessly into the original novel itself.
Reading it is sending me right back to Don Quixote for a third time.
The book has alternating chapters. Half of them are in the first person by Cervantes and tell his life story from birth to death, focusing on his fleeing from Spain following a bar room brawl, coming to Italy, fighting in the battle of Lepanto, and his time in captivity in Algiers. Many of the elements and characters he encounters are refashioned into Don Quixote, although the persiod when he was in and out of jail and writing his masterpiece basically take place off stage.
The other half of the chapters are primarily by what I believe is a fictional character, Luis Lara, a wealthy aristocrat who befriends Cervantes, ultimately becomes obsessively jealous of him, and writes the famous, false Don Quixote Part II--an unauthorized sequel to Don Quixote that appeared prior to Cervantes own continuation. Luis is fascinating because he feels his greater education and literary background make him superior to Cervantes gutter humor. The final chapter is narrated by Luis's servant--which gives yet another perspective on the entire story.
Cervantes Street can be read as a fast-paced adventure story, a running commentary on Don Quixote, a historical biopic, or an interesting piece of speculative fiction. The writing itself is extremely good and is sprinkled throughout with borrowing from Don Quixote and other Cervantes writing which are woven effortlessly into the original novel itself.
Reading it is sending me right back to Don Quixote for a third time.
March 29, 2014
I don't know where I picked this book up....It is a mesmerizing book explodes upon you..It is as some say a combination of The Count Of Monte Cristo & other stories.....The stories of men dressed up in religious mantras torturing people because of different views of belief is startling when one realizes that this methodology has been practiced since time began......other parts of this story is just so compelling....Don Quixote, Sancho, Dante and his Divine Comedy....you have got to read this.....please!
June 13, 2016
Cumple con su función: entretiene. Puro chismarrajo sobre la vida de Cervantes.
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December 4, 2012My review
The structure of Cervantes Street alternates chapters between the memoirs of Miguel and his rich college friend Luis Lara (with the final chapter told by Lara’s secretary). The opening chapter of each friend sets the stage for what follows in the novel: Cervantes kills a man in a bar fight over his family’s honor and escapes to avoid imprisonment and having his right hand cut off. Lara, after finding out that Cervantes is in love with his intended fiancée, finances Cervantes’ escape, initially from Madrid and ultimately from Spain. What follows in Miguel’s chapters is a speculative biography touching on known points of his life and filling in the unknown with a possible narrative. The speculations include characters and incidents that surface in Cervantes’ plays and novels. Manrique covers Cervantes’ participation in the Battle of Lepanto and his captivity in Algiers for five years before returning to Spain.
While Miguel’s story proves interesting the addition of Luis Lara as Miguel’s archenemy, while almost comic-book like at times, provides the best twists and turns of the story. Lara’s hatred of Miguel colors almost everything he does, changing him into a bitter, warped man. Lara claims to have provided Miguel with the idea for Don Quixote, although Cervantes’ section reflects how much was based on his own experiences.
Consistent with Don Quixote, Manrique's novel contains a lot of irony. One of my favorite turns of fate involves Cervantes' evolution from poet to storyteller. While in captivity he tries to earn money in order to survive by telling stories in the marketplace. A washerwoman upbraids him for his melancholy story, advising him that people want to forget their miserable lives. What Miguel doesn't know at this point (and can never know) is that the more sucessful his stories, the more torture for Luis Lara. Miguel stops mentioning Lara in his memoir, providing another ironic comparison with Lara’s fixation on his former friend. Another playful theme repeatedly occurs in the differences between the two histories—Lara portrays Cervantes in a very different light than Miguel's self-description. One final theme I’ll highlight rests in the comparison between Spain and Algiers. Manrique doesn’t hesitate to point out the cruelty, based on ethnicity or religion, in both locations at the time while avoiding moral relativism.
As in real life, an author going by the pen name of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda publishes a spurious sequel to Cervantes’ successful first part of Don Quixote and Manrique shows the motivation its release. Even though his story had initially been hijacked, Cervantes has the last word because of his successful second part to Don Quixote: “Worse...—I had not expected, no one had—that in Cervantes’s Part II, the crippled soldier of Lepanto would borrow the adventures and the characters created” by the spurious sequel's author.
It’s a fun, sad story, often mixing both elements at the same time. So why don’t I recommend it without reserve? I’m at a loss to explain, but I have this blog in order to work through such points. Manrique’s novel assists with some of the more esoteric allusions to Cervantes’ work embedded in the story while other references are obvious, such as having Miguel meeting a Sancho Panza in Algiers that resembles Quixote’s character perfectly. When the novel works, which is often, it is a fun read. Take the following example from Cervantes’ first chapter:
The prose can be florid and overwrought often—how much of that is intended to mimic what would be in the journals of late 16th/early 17th century Spanish poets I’m not sure, but I found it distracting. I found myself not enjoying some descriptions because of such language and some sections felt unnecessary.
An even larger part of my hesitation may be in comparing the book against Stephen Marlowe’s wonderful novel The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes, another mock autobiography, even though each book takes a different approach to a similar topic. I would recommend Marlowe's book (although with some reservations…see below) ahead of Cervantes Street.
Knowledge of Cervantes and his work isn’t necessary to enjoy Cervantes Street, although it does help the reader understand more of the relevance of particular anecdotes and appreciate some of the storyline. Another review of the novel can be found at the New York Journal of Books. Jamie Manrique’s site provides an excerpt from the novel. To date I seem to be in the minority in hesitations about the novel.
Sidenote: While I loved Marlowe’s book and highly recommend it, I do need to note some of my qualifications or reservations in that commendation. The biggest qualification would be that it’s been over a decade since I’ve read it, well before I began keeping notes on my reading. If I remember correctly, Marlowe doesn't make the parallels between his mock biography and Cervantes' works as explicit as Manrique does, requiring more familiarity with them to fully appreciate the book. What I remember, though, is a wonderful novel that was a little too long and occasionally strayed too much into far-fetched scenarios. But that’s the point of these novels, both spinning an entertaining story to fill the sizeable gaps of Cervantes' biography.
The structure of Cervantes Street alternates chapters between the memoirs of Miguel and his rich college friend Luis Lara (with the final chapter told by Lara’s secretary). The opening chapter of each friend sets the stage for what follows in the novel: Cervantes kills a man in a bar fight over his family’s honor and escapes to avoid imprisonment and having his right hand cut off. Lara, after finding out that Cervantes is in love with his intended fiancée, finances Cervantes’ escape, initially from Madrid and ultimately from Spain. What follows in Miguel’s chapters is a speculative biography touching on known points of his life and filling in the unknown with a possible narrative. The speculations include characters and incidents that surface in Cervantes’ plays and novels. Manrique covers Cervantes’ participation in the Battle of Lepanto and his captivity in Algiers for five years before returning to Spain.
While Miguel’s story proves interesting the addition of Luis Lara as Miguel’s archenemy, while almost comic-book like at times, provides the best twists and turns of the story. Lara’s hatred of Miguel colors almost everything he does, changing him into a bitter, warped man. Lara claims to have provided Miguel with the idea for Don Quixote, although Cervantes’ section reflects how much was based on his own experiences.
Consistent with Don Quixote, Manrique's novel contains a lot of irony. One of my favorite turns of fate involves Cervantes' evolution from poet to storyteller. While in captivity he tries to earn money in order to survive by telling stories in the marketplace. A washerwoman upbraids him for his melancholy story, advising him that people want to forget their miserable lives. What Miguel doesn't know at this point (and can never know) is that the more sucessful his stories, the more torture for Luis Lara. Miguel stops mentioning Lara in his memoir, providing another ironic comparison with Lara’s fixation on his former friend. Another playful theme repeatedly occurs in the differences between the two histories—Lara portrays Cervantes in a very different light than Miguel's self-description. One final theme I’ll highlight rests in the comparison between Spain and Algiers. Manrique doesn’t hesitate to point out the cruelty, based on ethnicity or religion, in both locations at the time while avoiding moral relativism.
As in real life, an author going by the pen name of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda publishes a spurious sequel to Cervantes’ successful first part of Don Quixote and Manrique shows the motivation its release. Even though his story had initially been hijacked, Cervantes has the last word because of his successful second part to Don Quixote: “Worse...—I had not expected, no one had—that in Cervantes’s Part II, the crippled soldier of Lepanto would borrow the adventures and the characters created” by the spurious sequel's author.
It’s a fun, sad story, often mixing both elements at the same time. So why don’t I recommend it without reserve? I’m at a loss to explain, but I have this blog in order to work through such points. Manrique’s novel assists with some of the more esoteric allusions to Cervantes’ work embedded in the story while other references are obvious, such as having Miguel meeting a Sancho Panza in Algiers that resembles Quixote’s character perfectly. When the novel works, which is often, it is a fun read. Take the following example from Cervantes’ first chapter:
Sevilla was a city of witches and enchanters. You had to be careful not to cross a woman, because any female, aristocratic or peasant, married or unmarried, old or young, beautiful or ugly, Christian or Moor, slave or free, could have satanic powers. Witches made red roses bloom in their homes in December. They could make or break marriages, could make grooms hang themselves or evaporate on the eve of the wedding, could make pregnant women give birth to litters of puppies.
Unlucky men who crossed the enchantresses were turned into donkeys. As husbands and lovers disappeared, new donkeys materialized and the women who owned these donkeys took delight in making them carry heavy loads. It was common to see a woman whose husband had vanished go around the city addressing every donkey she saw by her husband’s name. When an ass brayed in response, the woman would drop on her knees, cross herself, and give thanks to God that she had found her husband. If she wanted her man back, she had to buy the donkey from its owner. Then she would go back home, happy to have found her spouse, and spend the rest of her life trying to undo the enchantment. Or she might be just as happy to keep her husband in donkey form. It was said that some of the happiest marriages in Sevilla were between a woman and her ass. …
When a Sevillano allowed inflated notions to swell his head, he was told, “Remember, today you are a man, but tomorrow you may well be a donkey.”
The prose can be florid and overwrought often—how much of that is intended to mimic what would be in the journals of late 16th/early 17th century Spanish poets I’m not sure, but I found it distracting. I found myself not enjoying some descriptions because of such language and some sections felt unnecessary.
An even larger part of my hesitation may be in comparing the book against Stephen Marlowe’s wonderful novel The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes, another mock autobiography, even though each book takes a different approach to a similar topic. I would recommend Marlowe's book (although with some reservations…see below) ahead of Cervantes Street.
Knowledge of Cervantes and his work isn’t necessary to enjoy Cervantes Street, although it does help the reader understand more of the relevance of particular anecdotes and appreciate some of the storyline. Another review of the novel can be found at the New York Journal of Books. Jamie Manrique’s site provides an excerpt from the novel. To date I seem to be in the minority in hesitations about the novel.
Sidenote: While I loved Marlowe’s book and highly recommend it, I do need to note some of my qualifications or reservations in that commendation. The biggest qualification would be that it’s been over a decade since I’ve read it, well before I began keeping notes on my reading. If I remember correctly, Marlowe doesn't make the parallels between his mock biography and Cervantes' works as explicit as Manrique does, requiring more familiarity with them to fully appreciate the book. What I remember, though, is a wonderful novel that was a little too long and occasionally strayed too much into far-fetched scenarios. But that’s the point of these novels, both spinning an entertaining story to fill the sizeable gaps of Cervantes' biography.
October 13, 2023
I read this after Stephen Marlowe's sprawling (probably two-thirds longer; see my review) similar fictionalization of what we know about "The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes." While Marlowe's imaginative and confounding narrative delves into the shape-shifting strangeness, Manrique's take sticks to sobriety. His prose is clean, the pace efficient, and the content at times rather understated. It's the work of a professor and a professional. It should satisfy many readers.
After a slow start, the pace picks up in Algiers, after a too-"bloodless" account of the Battle of Lepanto, contrasted to Marlowe's "Patrick O'Brien-type of scenario. The "false sequel" for the first real volume of Don Quixote comes from the pen of "Luis," whose amorous jealousy of Miguel when they were courting youths rankles, and consumes him (and another antagonist) for decades.
The best parts, come in Algiers. The food, setting, scenery, sounds and smells convince that "it's as if you've been there." Stressing the humanist undercurrent of Cervantes, Manrique (predictably to me given his own orientation, profession, and assumptions) casts a jaundiced eye on the treatment of Moriscos and Marranos in post-Muslim Spain. His Cervantes manages to sound more like a man of our times than of sunbaked La Mancha. I expected this depiction. It doesn't detract from the story per se, but it doesn't make for as vivid, rousing, or page-turning an experience as I'd hoped.
After a slow start, the pace picks up in Algiers, after a too-"bloodless" account of the Battle of Lepanto, contrasted to Marlowe's "Patrick O'Brien-type of scenario. The "false sequel" for the first real volume of Don Quixote comes from the pen of "Luis," whose amorous jealousy of Miguel when they were courting youths rankles, and consumes him (and another antagonist) for decades.
The best parts, come in Algiers. The food, setting, scenery, sounds and smells convince that "it's as if you've been there." Stressing the humanist undercurrent of Cervantes, Manrique (predictably to me given his own orientation, profession, and assumptions) casts a jaundiced eye on the treatment of Moriscos and Marranos in post-Muslim Spain. His Cervantes manages to sound more like a man of our times than of sunbaked La Mancha. I expected this depiction. It doesn't detract from the story per se, but it doesn't make for as vivid, rousing, or page-turning an experience as I'd hoped.
September 26, 2020
Hmmm… I have the feeling that this COULD’ve been great… except for the dratted narration!
My Full Review
My Full Review
August 3, 2017
Körlemesine aldığım ama beni çok tatmin eden, sağlam bir tarihsel kurgu romanı. Cervantes'in ölümden beter yazgılarla bezeli gerçek biyografisi etrafına örülü kurgusal bir intikam hikayesi.
May 1, 2019
Excellent read
Except for his name, I knew nothing about Cervantes. This excellent novel educated me and urged me to read again the famous novel Don Quixote.
Except for his name, I knew nothing about Cervantes. This excellent novel educated me and urged me to read again the famous novel Don Quixote.
October 10, 2019
Intriguing
This book was intriguing to me as I had the original book as a senior in high school Spanish in 1966.
This book was intriguing to me as I had the original book as a senior in high school Spanish in 1966.
March 6, 2020
A new twist
Imaginative, funny, sad and very enjoyable. Mixing and blending Cervantes with his character of Don Quixote is a new and truly enjoyable idea.
Imaginative, funny, sad and very enjoyable. Mixing and blending Cervantes with his character of Don Quixote is a new and truly enjoyable idea.
June 25, 2020
A wonderful imagining of the life of Cervantes. May have to finally read Don Quixote!
December 5, 2020
Jaime is a poet, and his prose shows it. A magical story, beautifully told.
December 23, 2024
What can I say?
This book is absolutely genius, and Jaime is a prodigy. The story was honest and totally wholesome.
This book is absolutely genius, and Jaime is a prodigy. The story was honest and totally wholesome.
April 7, 2025
Book is enjoyable if you are familiar with Don Quixote
April 5, 2013
Cervantes Street by Jaime Manrique is a historical-fiction novel about Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s journey to write Don Quixote. The book is peppered with literary references to Cervantes’ works as well as works of the time, while I didn't get many I did enjoy learning about them
After the huge success of Don Quixote, a second part not written by Cervantes appears. The book is written by someone who uses the nom de plume Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda and prompts Cervantes to write his own “Book II”.
Who is Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda and why did he write the mysterious novel?
To find out the reader goes on a journey with Cervantes, from his escapes after killing a man (who insulted his Jewish ancestry), to his studies in Madrid, his passion of poetry, life in Rome and fighting in the battle of Lepanto. We trudge through years of slavery in Algiers (the story being told as a side tale in Don Quixote) as well as through his life back in Spain, where the famous author loves, loses and finally sits down to write his masterpiece
I am a big fan of Don Quixote, probably more to the nostalgia associated with the story from my childhood than anything to do with the classic story. However, when I did read the full length novel (both parts) I understood why the book has become such a literary classic.
Unfortunately, many readers get daunted by the sheer size of Don Quixote. The stories in the classic tale need knowledge of the time’s pop-culture in order to fully enjoy the reading experience. However, the same could be said for Shakespeare and several other authors from the far and not-so-far past.
For those readers who are overwhelmed by the size of the classic book, Cervantes Street by Jaime Manrique is the perfect introduction. The novel is exciting, paced well, interesting and with a literary mystery to boot. The “mystery” is quite easy to figure out but it’s the way we get to the end which makes the journey worth taking.
Mr. Manrique took an interesting life, gave it depth and narrative which shows great skill. The book is an exciting voyage where the literary payoff (both in the book and for the reader) is worth the investment and the old world in all its vividness and cruelty comes alive.
The author takes great care in assimilating some of Spain’s greatest poets into the story as well as weaving some of Don Quixote’s legends to the narrative. Many of the poets mentioned I did not recognize (I did read with interest the “Note to the Reader” section) however I did enjoy the literary license Mr. Manrique took to tell the story.
To write a good book you need a good heart is one of the lessons learned from this book, but there are other profound insights, not the least of them are about religion and destiny. We are responsible for our own future, we build our lives and we destroy them but it’s never too late, after all Cervantes was a dismal failure at everything he tried until he wrote Don Quixote at age 59.
The book is compact yet consistent with the life of Cervantes, Mr. Manrique manages to employ his imagination to create a rich environment and a gripping adventure. The characters are wonderfully inventive and charming; they all have their flows, their hearts and their assets with them, which makes the book real and engaging.
After the huge success of Don Quixote, a second part not written by Cervantes appears. The book is written by someone who uses the nom de plume Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda and prompts Cervantes to write his own “Book II”.
Who is Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda and why did he write the mysterious novel?
To find out the reader goes on a journey with Cervantes, from his escapes after killing a man (who insulted his Jewish ancestry), to his studies in Madrid, his passion of poetry, life in Rome and fighting in the battle of Lepanto. We trudge through years of slavery in Algiers (the story being told as a side tale in Don Quixote) as well as through his life back in Spain, where the famous author loves, loses and finally sits down to write his masterpiece
I am a big fan of Don Quixote, probably more to the nostalgia associated with the story from my childhood than anything to do with the classic story. However, when I did read the full length novel (both parts) I understood why the book has become such a literary classic.
Unfortunately, many readers get daunted by the sheer size of Don Quixote. The stories in the classic tale need knowledge of the time’s pop-culture in order to fully enjoy the reading experience. However, the same could be said for Shakespeare and several other authors from the far and not-so-far past.
For those readers who are overwhelmed by the size of the classic book, Cervantes Street by Jaime Manrique is the perfect introduction. The novel is exciting, paced well, interesting and with a literary mystery to boot. The “mystery” is quite easy to figure out but it’s the way we get to the end which makes the journey worth taking.
Mr. Manrique took an interesting life, gave it depth and narrative which shows great skill. The book is an exciting voyage where the literary payoff (both in the book and for the reader) is worth the investment and the old world in all its vividness and cruelty comes alive.
The author takes great care in assimilating some of Spain’s greatest poets into the story as well as weaving some of Don Quixote’s legends to the narrative. Many of the poets mentioned I did not recognize (I did read with interest the “Note to the Reader” section) however I did enjoy the literary license Mr. Manrique took to tell the story.
To write a good book you need a good heart is one of the lessons learned from this book, but there are other profound insights, not the least of them are about religion and destiny. We are responsible for our own future, we build our lives and we destroy them but it’s never too late, after all Cervantes was a dismal failure at everything he tried until he wrote Don Quixote at age 59.
The book is compact yet consistent with the life of Cervantes, Mr. Manrique manages to employ his imagination to create a rich environment and a gripping adventure. The characters are wonderfully inventive and charming; they all have their flows, their hearts and their assets with them, which makes the book real and engaging.
April 14, 2016
Originally appeared in Lambda Literary.
Jamie Manrique’s Cervantes Street (Akashic Books) is a picturesque imagining of the great Spanish master’s epic life. Told from the alternating points of view of Miguel de Cervantes himself, a self-assured genius from humble beginnings, and his childhood friend Luis de Lara, a man of great privilege, power, and jealousy, Manrique embellishes a swashbuckling biography to offer a captivating vision of Late Renaissance Spain – the inspiration for the first modern novel of the Western canon: Don Quixote.
As a young man Miguel de Cervantes-Saavedra dreams of becoming a court poet like his idol Garcilaso de la Vega, but his ambitions are frustrated by his family’s reduced circumstances and his Jewish heritage. Luis de Lara has no such obstacles: The son of one of Spain’s most powerful families, Luis is destined for greatness in service to the crown. Despite their disparate stations, however, the two aspiring poets develop a strong friendship built on a shared love of verse and mutual admiration. But, when Miguel’s romantic attentions turn to Luis’ betrothed, the beautiful Mercedes, he incites his friend’s fiery jealousy, and the well-connected Luis enacts a clandestine plan that has the consequence of banishing his newfound rival from the kingdom. What follows is a life of epic proportions for the swaggering Cervantes. A turn in the navy leaves him maimed and easy prey for the Algerian corsair Arnaut Mami. Five years of drudgery, torture, and humiliation in Mami’s prison leads to an eventual return to Spain where Cervantes once again takes up the pen. Luis keeps abreast of his rival’s misfortunes, drawing great joy over the years from his erstwhile friend’s misery, all the while exercising his middling talents in aborted literary pursuits and contending with a distant Mercedes and their only son.
By turns historical and inventive, Manrique expertly depicts a bygone era in ways that resonate with contemporary life. Cervantes’ Spain is a world deeply divided by religion, a place where unpopular beliefs can have the direst of consequences; yet, in its folly, it’s a place of great opportunity as well – a place where a man of humble origins can rise to become a father of modern letters. Manrique limns this contradiction with humor and sympathy, finding an underlying humanity in even the greatest villains. Mami and de Lara may be despicable in their actions, but it’s impossible to deny the influence they had on the production of Don Quixote, a masterpiece rivaled only by the works of a fellow prodigious scribe of the Late Renaissance, William Shakespeare.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
Jamie Manrique’s Cervantes Street (Akashic Books) is a picturesque imagining of the great Spanish master’s epic life. Told from the alternating points of view of Miguel de Cervantes himself, a self-assured genius from humble beginnings, and his childhood friend Luis de Lara, a man of great privilege, power, and jealousy, Manrique embellishes a swashbuckling biography to offer a captivating vision of Late Renaissance Spain – the inspiration for the first modern novel of the Western canon: Don Quixote.
As a young man Miguel de Cervantes-Saavedra dreams of becoming a court poet like his idol Garcilaso de la Vega, but his ambitions are frustrated by his family’s reduced circumstances and his Jewish heritage. Luis de Lara has no such obstacles: The son of one of Spain’s most powerful families, Luis is destined for greatness in service to the crown. Despite their disparate stations, however, the two aspiring poets develop a strong friendship built on a shared love of verse and mutual admiration. But, when Miguel’s romantic attentions turn to Luis’ betrothed, the beautiful Mercedes, he incites his friend’s fiery jealousy, and the well-connected Luis enacts a clandestine plan that has the consequence of banishing his newfound rival from the kingdom. What follows is a life of epic proportions for the swaggering Cervantes. A turn in the navy leaves him maimed and easy prey for the Algerian corsair Arnaut Mami. Five years of drudgery, torture, and humiliation in Mami’s prison leads to an eventual return to Spain where Cervantes once again takes up the pen. Luis keeps abreast of his rival’s misfortunes, drawing great joy over the years from his erstwhile friend’s misery, all the while exercising his middling talents in aborted literary pursuits and contending with a distant Mercedes and their only son.
By turns historical and inventive, Manrique expertly depicts a bygone era in ways that resonate with contemporary life. Cervantes’ Spain is a world deeply divided by religion, a place where unpopular beliefs can have the direst of consequences; yet, in its folly, it’s a place of great opportunity as well – a place where a man of humble origins can rise to become a father of modern letters. Manrique limns this contradiction with humor and sympathy, finding an underlying humanity in even the greatest villains. Mami and de Lara may be despicable in their actions, but it’s impossible to deny the influence they had on the production of Don Quixote, a masterpiece rivaled only by the works of a fellow prodigious scribe of the Late Renaissance, William Shakespeare.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
October 21, 2015
Jaime Manrique's 2012 novel
Cervantes Street
is a big disappointment. The novel was inspired by what Cervantes himself wrote in his greatest work Don Quixote. In the prologue of the first part, he wrote to his readers that he could have glammed up the beginning pages of his work with a worthy quote or two. After offering quotes on other subjects, he suggested that "If the topic is the fickleness of friends, Cato's there ready with his couplet.
Actually, according to Edith Grossman,the well-regarded translator of Don Quixote, the quote is from Ovid, and it roughly translate as "Nobody knows you when you're down and out."
The second idea for Manrique's Cervantes Street that might well have been plucked from the second part of the novel which was published in 1615 a decade after the first part was released. In a letter to his patron, Cervantes complains about a false further adventures of Don Quixote that had been written by a still unknown writer who used the pen name Avellaneda. Apparently, this second volume about the Man from La Mancha had been published before Cervantes' work. In fact, he discovered this as he was writing the fifty-ninth chapter of the second volume, and may have inspired him to make sure a third volume of Quixote's adventures never would be written.
Indeed, Manrique's story is mostly an amalgamation of Cervantes' writing and Cervantes' biography. Although he is a Columbian, the author wrote the novel in English. [The Spanish translation by Juan Fernando Merino is called El callejón de Cervantes.] And it seem to me, at least, that when Cervantes is speaking in the narrative, he sounds like how Edith Grossman translated Cervantes to sound as the narrator in Don Quixote.
Part of my disappointment with this book probably was my own fault. I judged the book by its cover. The dust jacket has quotes of praise from prominent and well-known Latin American writers Esmeralda Santiago, Junot Díaz and Laura Restrepo. Even Edith Grossman is quoted saying that "Manrique has written an exception historical novel." I thought this is a book that will pay homage to the first modern novel on the 400th anniversary of its publication as well as its author.
The book got off to a great start. I was a hundred pages in and telling friends that this is the book to read. Sadly though, the novel failed to maintain its own energy. It seemed about halfway through, Manrique lost interest in his story and rushed through to the end of his story. Perhaps he just ran out of time and had to meet a publisher's deadline. As a result, the story fell apart. His treatment of the friendship of Panza and Cervantes particularly bad. Sadly, it didn't fulfill its promise to a homage to Cervantes and that was the book's greatest disappointment. Don't read this book.
Done eris felix, multos numerabis amicos, Tempora si fuerint nublia, solus eris."
Actually, according to Edith Grossman,the well-regarded translator of Don Quixote, the quote is from Ovid, and it roughly translate as "Nobody knows you when you're down and out."
The second idea for Manrique's Cervantes Street that might well have been plucked from the second part of the novel which was published in 1615 a decade after the first part was released. In a letter to his patron, Cervantes complains about a false further adventures of Don Quixote that had been written by a still unknown writer who used the pen name Avellaneda. Apparently, this second volume about the Man from La Mancha had been published before Cervantes' work. In fact, he discovered this as he was writing the fifty-ninth chapter of the second volume, and may have inspired him to make sure a third volume of Quixote's adventures never would be written.
Indeed, Manrique's story is mostly an amalgamation of Cervantes' writing and Cervantes' biography. Although he is a Columbian, the author wrote the novel in English. [The Spanish translation by Juan Fernando Merino is called El callejón de Cervantes.] And it seem to me, at least, that when Cervantes is speaking in the narrative, he sounds like how Edith Grossman translated Cervantes to sound as the narrator in Don Quixote.
Part of my disappointment with this book probably was my own fault. I judged the book by its cover. The dust jacket has quotes of praise from prominent and well-known Latin American writers Esmeralda Santiago, Junot Díaz and Laura Restrepo. Even Edith Grossman is quoted saying that "Manrique has written an exception historical novel." I thought this is a book that will pay homage to the first modern novel on the 400th anniversary of its publication as well as its author.
The book got off to a great start. I was a hundred pages in and telling friends that this is the book to read. Sadly though, the novel failed to maintain its own energy. It seemed about halfway through, Manrique lost interest in his story and rushed through to the end of his story. Perhaps he just ran out of time and had to meet a publisher's deadline. As a result, the story fell apart. His treatment of the friendship of Panza and Cervantes particularly bad. Sadly, it didn't fulfill its promise to a homage to Cervantes and that was the book's greatest disappointment. Don't read this book.
January 2, 2013
"Cervantes Street" (Akashic Books, 2012), by Jaime Manrique, is a tour de force in the life of Miguel de Cervantes. When a character such as Cervantes is so intimate and human, with frailties comparable to people we know or can envision, the author has supremely succeeded in bringing this historical figure to life. In fact, before reading "Cervantes Street", I had no incentive to read "Don Quixote". I previously owned Edith Grossman's celebrated translation but gave it to a friend. Now, because of Manrique's illuminating account of Cervantes and his provocative life, I will certainly read Ms. Grossman's translation!
Among Manrique's characters are Miguel de Cervantes and his friend, a mediocre poet-aristocrat, Luis de Lara, who has an insufferable existence because he is so envious of Cervantes' talents and eventual success writing "Don Quixote". A good portion of the book is narrated by Luis de Lara, and eclipses with the first-person narration of Cervantes.
The author takes us through the extensive and turbulent life of Cervantes, from Madrid to Algiers, where Cervantes encounters innumerable moments of humiliation. Cervantes, in addition to the debilitating nightmare of living in Algiers, must overcome torturous obstacles in Spain. The retelling of this historical period is riveting---with the intermingling of Moorish, Spanish, Turkish and Algerian personalities. It's a terrifying and dynamic place, this Algiers, in "Cervantes Street".
There is literary intrigue in "Cervantes Street", and Manrique cuts through the pretensions of what some might find with using an illustrious name such as "Cervantes." We feel the humor, romanticism, individualism, insecurity and enslavement of Cervantes; comprehend the embittered feelings of Luis de Lara; and the meanderings of society during the Late Renaissance in Spain.
The assemblage of characters is astounding: gracious Sancho Panza; Cervantes' dysfunctional immediate family; a histrionic mother-in-law; and Beatrice-like lovers.
The author did much research for this novel, which includes sixteenth century anti-Semitism, Muslim baiting, Christian baiting---the world then, in many ways, is a precursor to what exists today. The Crusades no longer exist, but there is still innocent bloodshed in the name of religion.
I have read Manrique's other works, such as "Latin Moon in Manhattan" and "Twilight at the Equator", and while his prose and poetry are often ambitious and splendid, "Cervantes Street" struck a chord of complete joy in my heart. Manrique's novel is a page turner and literary gem that is well worth reading.
Among Manrique's characters are Miguel de Cervantes and his friend, a mediocre poet-aristocrat, Luis de Lara, who has an insufferable existence because he is so envious of Cervantes' talents and eventual success writing "Don Quixote". A good portion of the book is narrated by Luis de Lara, and eclipses with the first-person narration of Cervantes.
The author takes us through the extensive and turbulent life of Cervantes, from Madrid to Algiers, where Cervantes encounters innumerable moments of humiliation. Cervantes, in addition to the debilitating nightmare of living in Algiers, must overcome torturous obstacles in Spain. The retelling of this historical period is riveting---with the intermingling of Moorish, Spanish, Turkish and Algerian personalities. It's a terrifying and dynamic place, this Algiers, in "Cervantes Street".
There is literary intrigue in "Cervantes Street", and Manrique cuts through the pretensions of what some might find with using an illustrious name such as "Cervantes." We feel the humor, romanticism, individualism, insecurity and enslavement of Cervantes; comprehend the embittered feelings of Luis de Lara; and the meanderings of society during the Late Renaissance in Spain.
The assemblage of characters is astounding: gracious Sancho Panza; Cervantes' dysfunctional immediate family; a histrionic mother-in-law; and Beatrice-like lovers.
The author did much research for this novel, which includes sixteenth century anti-Semitism, Muslim baiting, Christian baiting---the world then, in many ways, is a precursor to what exists today. The Crusades no longer exist, but there is still innocent bloodshed in the name of religion.
I have read Manrique's other works, such as "Latin Moon in Manhattan" and "Twilight at the Equator", and while his prose and poetry are often ambitious and splendid, "Cervantes Street" struck a chord of complete joy in my heart. Manrique's novel is a page turner and literary gem that is well worth reading.
December 1, 2013
As an avid reader of historical fiction, I was pleasantly surprised to see a historical fiction novel set in Spain during the Siglo de Oro. I confess I didn't know much about Cervantes' life, despite taking a few courses in Spanish literature in college. So I was eager to read this fictional account of the author of Don Quixote.
The novel is divided primarily into two first-person narratives, one being Cervantes himself and the other being a childhood friend, Luis de Lara. The final chapter (other than the two page epilogue at the end), is a first-person narrative as told by Don Luis' personal secretary. The novel moved along at a fairly good clip, especially the chapter or 2 based in Algiers. The novel was full of color and vibrant descriptions of Renaissance Spain and the casbah in Algiers. It was truly a riveting read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction.
The novel is divided primarily into two first-person narratives, one being Cervantes himself and the other being a childhood friend, Luis de Lara. The final chapter (other than the two page epilogue at the end), is a first-person narrative as told by Don Luis' personal secretary. The novel moved along at a fairly good clip, especially the chapter or 2 based in Algiers. The novel was full of color and vibrant descriptions of Renaissance Spain and the casbah in Algiers. It was truly a riveting read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction.
April 9, 2015
I'm pretty much a sucker for anything related to Miguel Cervantes or Don Quixote (one of my favorite classic novels), but this one proved to be an exception. It's a fictionalized life of Cervantes narrated in alternating voices between Cervantes and a friend-turned-enemy who apparently writes an alternate version of Don Quixote. Despite all the swashbuckling adventure, I'm pretty bored after 135 pages, so I'm bailing out. For a better effort along these lines, read Tilting at Windmills, by Julian Branston.
July 3, 2012
Originally written in English, this Spanish translation gives a detailed portait of the life of the upper class or Spain in the late 16th century. The details about the Mediterranean slave trade and living as a slave in Algeria are not for the faint at heart. The structure of telling the story from the point of view of Cervantes and his archenemy, Luis Lara is fascinating and does make it a more fun read.
February 7, 2013
a very nice historical novel ranging from cordoba to lepanto and an excellent section of the slave life in algiers, imagines the life of cervantes and also who his arch enemey, avellaneda, really was and why he wrote "don Quixote II"
see this very nice review for specifics. akashic has matured into a well rounded and always fun and professional publisher.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
see this very nice review for specifics. akashic has matured into a well rounded and always fun and professional publisher.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
October 14, 2012
Richly written historical fiction that vividly brings late 16th century to life, from the poetry of Spanish Golden Age to the brutality of the slave-trade in Algiers. An intriguing tale of literary inspiration and rivalry. Made me want to find a copy of Don Quixote de La Mancha and read it with a fresh perspective, not to mention grab the next flight to Madrid!
September 25, 2012
Despite some long-winded passages, I found this novel captivating. Manrique did a remarkable job capturing the XVI century Spain, all the way down to the language and the complicated social stratification. A wonderful and engaging story, especially in the second and third parts.
September 26, 2012
Jaime Manrique has written a msterwork. I couldn't put it down and would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a work historically inventive, extremely interesting and what intelligent and colourful prose!
September 30, 2012
ok story, not so well written.
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