Michael
You Dreamed of Empires is certainly a strange novel.
It takes place on the day Hernán Cortés arrives in Tenoxtitlan (Enrigue’s preferred spelling rather than Tenochtitlan) and describes the meeting between the Colhuas or “Aztecs” and the Spanish.
The cast of characters felt enormous, perhaps because the names are so unfamiliar. Luckily Enrigue provides a list of the characters, and I referred to this list constantly, otherwise I would have been completely lost. The POV shifts rapidly, sometimes on the same page. Due to the constantly shifting perspectives, I was kept a little off-balance, which reflects what the Spanish were feeling, so I got used to this sort of crooked feeling. It added to the reading experience for me.
The novel describes two cultures, both steeped in violence. Both cultures have religiously based violence—Moctezuma’s are human sacrifices to the gods and Cortés’ the Inquisition—and the violence of war. In both cultures there are characters who sort of roll their eyes at the demands of official religion. And neither culture quite understands the other, and on Moctezuma’s side there is no real attempt to do so. He is in control in Tenoxtitlan not the Spanish.
At times the author breaks the “fourth wall” and speaks directly to reader about the novel and what is going on. All very meta if I understand the meaning of meta. I enjoyed these interludes.
When reading novels of this sort I am constantly looking up characters online. Is this character based on a real person, did that battle really take place, was the city as clean as it is depicted. However, I felt no need to do it for this story. I just let the book carry me wherever it wanted to go.
I loved the ending, and I loved the description of Moctezuma as being constantly high on mushrooms.
I don’t think this book will be for everyone, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it.
You Dreamed of Empires is certainly a strange novel.
It takes place on the day Hernán Cortés arrives in Tenoxtitlan (Enrigue’s preferred spelling rather than Tenochtitlan) and describes the meeting between the Colhuas or “Aztecs” and the Spanish.
The cast of characters felt enormous, perhaps because the names are so unfamiliar. Luckily Enrigue provides a list of the characters, and I referred to this list constantly, otherwise I would have been completely lost. The POV shifts rapidly, sometimes on the same page. Due to the constantly shifting perspectives, I was kept a little off-balance, which reflects what the Spanish were feeling, so I got used to this sort of crooked feeling. It added to the reading experience for me.
The novel describes two cultures, both steeped in violence. Both cultures have religiously based violence—Moctezuma’s are human sacrifices to the gods and Cortés’ the Inquisition—and the violence of war. In both cultures there are characters who sort of roll their eyes at the demands of official religion. And neither culture quite understands the other, and on Moctezuma’s side there is no real attempt to do so. He is in control in Tenoxtitlan not the Spanish.
At times the author breaks the “fourth wall” and speaks directly to reader about the novel and what is going on. All very meta if I understand the meaning of meta. I enjoyed these interludes.
When reading novels of this sort I am constantly looking up characters online. Is this character based on a real person, did that battle really take place, was the city as clean as it is depicted. However, I felt no need to do it for this story. I just let the book carry me wherever it wanted to go.
I loved the ending, and I loved the description of Moctezuma as being constantly high on mushrooms.
I don’t think this book will be for everyone, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it.