The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman ~ Louis de Bernières

Magic realism. Need to read at least one book of Gabriel García Márquez's books to check it out from the master himself. Someone mentioned in Wikipedia that Louis de Bernières was paying homage to the style that came from Latin America by employing the Magic Realism style that was born there (?). And, intelligent as I am, further thought that he was paying specific tribute to Garcia by naming one of the characters after him. It might be that Garcia is fairly common name in Latin America and that this style (or even way of thinking) was usual for de Bernieres in his initial years as author; and so homage or no homage, perhaps he had no choice in these matters.

This was my third book by de Bernières. In each of his earlier two books that I read (Corelli's Mandolin & Birds without Wings) I had observed a method- an arrangement of events to get to the heart of the reader. First, he would depict an idyllic picture of a community and slowly get you in love with them. When doing so, he would give so many details for each setting, each character and each event that you would find the whole situation funnily real, and also would find yourself living those moments. And then in the second half, he would disrupt the whole way of living for the village/ small town, uproot them from their homes and would show one by one, how life turned sour for the individuals. And once again, like he had done with the good days, here also you would not be spared the gruesome and melancholy details.

I was suspecting the same treatment in this book, and was already dreading reaching the 2nd half of the book. But this time the end was not so bad. While for Colombia (or whichever country it was he was describing) the nature of the governance doesn't change much by the end of the book just becasue of regime change; the little town of Cochadebajo de los Gatos is spared the destruction and the townsfolk end the novel with a long fiesta, like in Asterix.

The long named town is the setting for the novel. And is home to funny, strange but lovable characters. While they are living their lovely-lovely life their with their million idiosyncrasies and hundreds of wild cats; a dishonest cardinal unwittingly starts an inquisition with an over-zealous priest in command. Unimaginable atrocities depicted with horrifying details make you wonder if really man is capable of doing all that. But the wonder should rather be reserved for the funny ghosts of the town who not only refuse to marry, but also fall in love in their afterlife, have kids and even get killed from their ghost-hood and transported back to life with a rebirth :)

Eventually the inquisition reaches the town, but is defeated in a fantastic battle fought by army, townsfolk and ghosts. The modern day Torquemada, El Innocente, is taken by St. Thomas Aquinas himself with a promise that he will go naked forever.

Millennium ~Tom Holland

Subtitle of the book reads "The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom", that should give some idea about the book. Focus of the book is roughly the 100 year span of European history around the first Millennium (10th & 11th century). During that time...