From Reanne:
Confession: even though I am an avid hispanophile, I have never read Cervantes's Don Quixote. I came across Miranda France's Don Quixote's Delusions: Travels in Castilian Spain by accident the other day in the library and it had me hooked from the first page. In her excellent narrative spanning two sojourns to Spain (the first in the late 1980s, the second a decade later) France effortlessly guides her readers through 400 years of Spanish history, plus Cervantes massive 1,000 page tome, all while relating both to real and fictive characters past and present. Don Quixote's Delusions: Travels in Castilian Spain is a masterfully crafted travelogue, book review, treatise on the Spanish character, and historical narrative all rolled into a one neat, highly readable and enjoyable book. From the description, one might be wary of the intense subject matter and density of both Cervantes's Don Quixote and Spanish history (hey, it is summer after all!) but France is a natural story-teller. This book is ideal for arm-chair historians, undergrads, and everyday people who appreciate fast-moving, informative books. A+ and highly recommended.
Reanne Eichele
Unaffiliated member of the library
1 comment:
Thanks so much Reanne, I love postings that begin with confessions and yes I've never read Don Quixote nor Dantes Inferno even though they live in in our popular culture. This book does sound like a good entry to the famous work of fiction.
Anyone interested in it would need to either go to the Grand Forks Public Library (Adult Nonfiction 946.2 F844 -- remember you can use your UND card there after getting it activated here first)or request an Interlibrary Loan from here.
Take care!
Kristen
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