Kam
Okay, so. This wasn’t entirely bad, but it’s not really something I’d say is awesome from the get-go.
My main issue with it is that it starts of VERY slow - and I mean, the story doesn’t really get going until around the halfway point. Most of the time this sort of issue can sort of be mitigated if the narrator, protagonist/s, or setting are in any way interesting, but none of those things can be considered all that gripping. Which is personally disappointing, because I was hoping that, at the very least, the setting would prove to be fascinating, but alas, there isn’t enough world-building done for the story to be all that interesting. I honestly considered DNFing it at around the 30% point because it was THAT SLOW getting going.
I attribute this mostly to something I learned about in the Author’s Notes. According to the author, the first half of the book is lifted (almost word-for-word in some cases, apparently) from first-hand accounts of the event that inspired this whole book in the first place: the defloration of a young Florentine woman by Vincenzo Gonzaga in order to prove his virility, and thus allow him to marry the daughter of Florence’s Grand Duke and Duchess at the time. While it’s admirable of the author to want to draw heavily from the primary sources for this story, I think the novel actually suffers because of that reliance. It’s clear that the author aimed to tell the story (mostly) from the point of view of the victim in this whole scenario, but there isn’t a lot of characterization done for her at all. A lot of things happen TO her, but there’s no groundwork laid to actually make her feel like a living, breathing person. That she existed isn’t in question here; what’s important is that she is written in a way that makes her exist again for the reader. Victimized once, in life, it almost feels like she’s victimized again in this novel, made into a puppet moved by the narrative.
As I mentioned earlier, this novel only really picks up past the halfway point, which is the point when the author is clearly no longer relying on historical documents to carry the story and instead creating a proper plot. While there’s still not much characterization being done for any of the characters, the plot is at least interesting enough to carry the story forward. It’s only unfortunate that this happens in the novel’s latter half. The first half could certainly have used some of that storytelling energy to really make the novel interesting from the get-go.
What makes this whole affair even more unfortunate is that there are some interesting themes here about power: how helpless one can be in the face of those who wield greater power, money, and authority than oneself, yes, but also how even those in power are themselves at the mercy of others (though of course to a much different degree than ordinary folk). This is especially true for how it tackles how power is exerted by those in power on the bodies of the exploited, especially for labor. There is something in those themes that could have rung true to today’s contemporary sociopolitical situation, but the utter lack of characterization and interesting plot in the novel’s first half badly hampers any kind of explication this novel might have been able to do on those themes.
Overall, this is a read that requires some stubbornness to get through, because the first half lacks any character development for the protagonist/narrator, making it a bit of a slog to get through since she is not compelling enough to make the reader want to stick around (something which would not be too much of a problem if she’d gotten more character development). There IS some more plot (and some character development - but only a little) in the novel’s latter half, but the reader still needs to get through that first half to get to the last half, and unfortunately I’m not entirely sure if that storytelling in the latter half is really worth it.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.
Okay, so. This wasn’t entirely bad, but it’s not really something I’d say is awesome from the get-go.
My main issue with it is that it starts of VERY slow - and I mean, the story doesn’t really get going until around the halfway point. Most of the time this sort of issue can sort of be mitigated if the narrator, protagonist/s, or setting are in any way interesting, but none of those things can be considered all that gripping. Which is personally disappointing, because I was hoping that, at the very least, the setting would prove to be fascinating, but alas, there isn’t enough world-building done for the story to be all that interesting. I honestly considered DNFing it at around the 30% point because it was THAT SLOW getting going.
I attribute this mostly to something I learned about in the Author’s Notes. According to the author, the first half of the book is lifted (almost word-for-word in some cases, apparently) from first-hand accounts of the event that inspired this whole book in the first place: the defloration of a young Florentine woman by Vincenzo Gonzaga in order to prove his virility, and thus allow him to marry the daughter of Florence’s Grand Duke and Duchess at the time. While it’s admirable of the author to want to draw heavily from the primary sources for this story, I think the novel actually suffers because of that reliance. It’s clear that the author aimed to tell the story (mostly) from the point of view of the victim in this whole scenario, but there isn’t a lot of characterization done for her at all. A lot of things happen TO her, but there’s no groundwork laid to actually make her feel like a living, breathing person. That she existed isn’t in question here; what’s important is that she is written in a way that makes her exist again for the reader. Victimized once, in life, it almost feels like she’s victimized again in this novel, made into a puppet moved by the narrative.
As I mentioned earlier, this novel only really picks up past the halfway point, which is the point when the author is clearly no longer relying on historical documents to carry the story and instead creating a proper plot. While there’s still not much characterization being done for any of the characters, the plot is at least interesting enough to carry the story forward. It’s only unfortunate that this happens in the novel’s latter half. The first half could certainly have used some of that storytelling energy to really make the novel interesting from the get-go.
What makes this whole affair even more unfortunate is that there are some interesting themes here about power: how helpless one can be in the face of those who wield greater power, money, and authority than oneself, yes, but also how even those in power are themselves at the mercy of others (though of course to a much different degree than ordinary folk). This is especially true for how it tackles how power is exerted by those in power on the bodies of the exploited, especially for labor. There is something in those themes that could have rung true to today’s contemporary sociopolitical situation, but the utter lack of characterization and interesting plot in the novel’s first half badly hampers any kind of explication this novel might have been able to do on those themes.
Overall, this is a read that requires some stubbornness to get through, because the first half lacks any character development for the protagonist/narrator, making it a bit of a slog to get through since she is not compelling enough to make the reader want to stick around (something which would not be too much of a problem if she’d gotten more character development). There IS some more plot (and some character development - but only a little) in the novel’s latter half, but the reader still needs to get through that first half to get to the last half, and unfortunately I’m not entirely sure if that storytelling in the latter half is really worth it.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.