The Last Cato - Matilde Asensi, $13.95In high school Iloved reading the Divine Commedy. As I was clicking through BN.com I found the book The Last Cato. Because the quick caption on the back mentioned that this book used elements of the Divine Comedy, I had to pick it up and read it. Got to love impulse shopping.
I do admit though that prior to reading this novel, though not before buying it, for better or worse, I checked a couple of reviews. Most people started by saying "if you liked the Da Vinci code..." which was, to be honest, off putting.
The Da Vinci Code was a poorly written American novel that combined the worst aspects of left and right wingnuttery - antiChristian pomo-paganism and a baseless obsession with conspiracy theories. It only grazed plausibility with loose connections to any facts surrounding the historical characters or groups included in the work, which is why it deserves wholeheartedly the categorization as fiction. Like I said before though, it was poorly written fiction.
The Last Cato, which was published three years prior to the Da Vinci Code, does not embrace wingnuttery, is not antichristian, though it's not a hagiography of the modern churches. It does criticize utilizing liberal historical criticism, and veiled feminist criticism, and to a degree it contains a certain level of religious skepticism and anti-clericalism - which seems to fit the profile of the author: Woman born in continental Europe during the 60s - a stereotype true, but one that fits. But one thing is clear - the work is not a part of the bandwagon that says that religion is bad and that modern churches have ruined what was otherwise some good morals.
The book utilizes the historical and literary context of Dante's Comedy, to take our characters across the ancient Christian capitols of the Mediterranean world from catacomb to catacomb in search of the stolen relics of the lignum crucis. The narrative incorporates often neglected themes from Byzantine and early Medieval Church history to paint an historical picture, that while clearly fictionalized, has plausibility.
That's not to say that the book is without problems. The characters at times seemed shallow, and unknowable. There were also problems within the character dialog as well as narration with bland colloquialisms and out of place references that could have been used without. When this happened, and thankfully it happened rarely, it seemed as if there was a rupture in the story telling. It was as if the author was trying to deliberately input an ideological point that was otherwise obvious within the characters construction. The chief problem though was the translation. Originally written in Spanish, the English translation at times butchered what to that point was evenly flowing text - which could help explain some of the other narrative flaws because inherently something is always lost in translation
On the whole though, it was an enjoyable read, once I got into it, I really didn't want to put it down. It made more sense and held more appeal than the tripe that Dan Brown puts out. If done properly, it would also make a better movie than his work. One can only hope that future editions will be translated more accurately - and from looking at the titles the author has produced since the release of the Last Cato in 2001 - that more of her work will be translated.
The Da Vinci Code was a poorly written American novel that combined the worst aspects of left and right wingnuttery - antiChristian pomo-paganism and a baseless obsession with conspiracy theories. It only grazed plausibility with loose connections to any facts surrounding the historical characters or groups included in the work, which is why it deserves wholeheartedly the categorization as fiction. Like I said before though, it was poorly written fiction.
The Last Cato, which was published three years prior to the Da Vinci Code, does not embrace wingnuttery, is not antichristian, though it's not a hagiography of the modern churches. It does criticize utilizing liberal historical criticism, and veiled feminist criticism, and to a degree it contains a certain level of religious skepticism and anti-clericalism - which seems to fit the profile of the author: Woman born in continental Europe during the 60s - a stereotype true, but one that fits. But one thing is clear - the work is not a part of the bandwagon that says that religion is bad and that modern churches have ruined what was otherwise some good morals.
The book utilizes the historical and literary context of Dante's Comedy, to take our characters across the ancient Christian capitols of the Mediterranean world from catacomb to catacomb in search of the stolen relics of the lignum crucis. The narrative incorporates often neglected themes from Byzantine and early Medieval Church history to paint an historical picture, that while clearly fictionalized, has plausibility.
That's not to say that the book is without problems. The characters at times seemed shallow, and unknowable. There were also problems within the character dialog as well as narration with bland colloquialisms and out of place references that could have been used without. When this happened, and thankfully it happened rarely, it seemed as if there was a rupture in the story telling. It was as if the author was trying to deliberately input an ideological point that was otherwise obvious within the characters construction. The chief problem though was the translation. Originally written in Spanish, the English translation at times butchered what to that point was evenly flowing text - which could help explain some of the other narrative flaws because inherently something is always lost in translation
On the whole though, it was an enjoyable read, once I got into it, I really didn't want to put it down. It made more sense and held more appeal than the tripe that Dan Brown puts out. If done properly, it would also make a better movie than his work. One can only hope that future editions will be translated more accurately - and from looking at the titles the author has produced since the release of the Last Cato in 2001 - that more of her work will be translated.
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