About book The Troublesome Offspring Of Cardinal Guzman (1998)
Mildly disappointing, but only compared to the insanely high standards I have come to expect from Mr de Berniéres and his extreme awesomeness as an author.The storyCardinal Guzman is not the best guy around, not even by normal person standards. And the man is a Cardinal! So as you might expect, Cardinal Guzman has a lot of repressed guilt and a bit of self loathing lurking around his subconscious. Because he's not an inherently evil man or anything. And the self loathing starts to manifest itself in the form of demonic appearances and extreme stomach cramps. The Cardinal cannot go on this way, and isn't improving in spite of the tender ministrations of his mistress (oops!) or the affections of his illegitimate son (double oops!). So the cardinal decides that drastic action is the only way to save his soul.Cardinal Guzman means well, but upon collecting data relating to the state of Catholicism in the nation, the Cardinal is deeply disturbed. Reports came thick and fast about the bastardisation of the Catholic faith, with tales of renegade priests preaching free love, happiness, and a guilt-free existence. The Cardinal sends out a man of the church to right the wrongs of the peasants.Cochadebajo de los Gatos is right where de Berniéres left it in The War For Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts and Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord, and all our old favourites are still there. However, Cardinal Guzman's crusade is a threat to how they live their lives, and even their lives themselves. When the village becomes aware of the threat to their existence, drastic action must be taken to protect themselves...The styleIt was de Berniéres, and it was good. Specifics: The perspective was your classic third person semi-omniscient focusing on different people at different times. Beautifully timed and paced, The Troublesome Offspring Of Cardinal Guzman switches effortlessly between characters, managing to retain a good pace while not overwhelming the reader with Spanish names and people. The characters are all incredibly well done; however if you hadn't read at least one of the two previous books in this series you might find the quantity of character development of those within the Cochadebajo de los Gatos lacking - Louis de Berniéres spent so much time delving into their personalities in his other novels that he focused more on his new characters on this one - which is reasonable, that's just a warning.The storyline is cunningly created and twisty as is the style of Louis de Berniéres, with coincidences and slow wanderings toward disaster and nail-biting suspense within the story. de Berniéres has this ability to make you feel like you are there, watching, completely involved and invested in the plot. I don't cry much, in general, but de Berniéres can make tears spring to my eyes with the least provocation. The guy has skills.On the downside, I didn't love it as much as I loved The War For Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts. I think the main reason was because while I felt that the ideas behind the story were very strong, as usual - Guzman's comments about belief, religion and beaurocracy just to name a couple - they were a bit... tired. I felt like I knew where it was going, I could see the direction and the plot and he was sort of doing reruns of previous themes instead of working in more new stuff. When I read The War For Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, I found all the social commentary and issues intriguing and new, and just gutsed the whole book down fast. The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman took me a little longer, and didn't keep me quite so involved. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed it. I just didn't enjoy it as much as some of his other stuff. I would still recommend it though.Who is this book for?This book is for people who want a little thoughtfulness with their reading material, written in an engaging way. The issues are masterfully presented and for lovers of contemporary literature, it doesn't get much better written than by Louis de Berniéres. I reckon.If you like this book, you would also like...Louis de Berniéres's other books. I can't rate him highly enough.
The weirdest and third of the trilogy. The back cover gives adequate warning and sums up quite well ;- "While the economy of this small South American country collapses, President Veracruz joins his improbable populance of ex-soldiers, former guerillas, unfrocked priests and reformed - though by no means inactive - whores, in a bizarre search for sexual fulfillment.But for Cardinal Guzman, a man tormented by his own private demons, their stupendous, hedonistic fiestas represent the epicentre of all heresies. Heresies that must be challenged with a horrifying new inquisition destined to climax in a spectacular confrontation."The book is completely readable and not all weirdness but to give a flavour, from chapter 34 - "His Eminence looked at the desk in his room and saw that it had become a rotten coffin through whose distorted boards there sprouted verminous cascades of ancient hair that waved like the tentacles of an anemone. There was no doubt that the grey wisps were growing apace and were winding about the furniture. A hank of it curled about his ankle and began to constrict it like a boa. He shouted, pulling his leg away, but the force reduced the casket to dust, and on the floor where his desk had been, there was now a cadaver watching him. The skin was shrunk over the bones like an Indian mummy, the hair was growing with the speed of a stream, and the amber teeth of the mouth smiled at him with contemptuous inanity."Good luck with this one !
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Thus far, this is my third sampling of de Bernieres' genius, and I wish I had read THIS before Corelli and Partisan. While I am eager to dive into his Commonwealth Prize-winning works, Cardinal Guzman made me giggle, cry and love characters non-stop. Rollercoaster of emotions? Even that is pales in comparison. While each character has a different set of values to bring to the story, each also have quirks which inexplicably draw them to each other or make them mortal enemies. And while part of them is too ludicrous to be real, others are a stark reminder of how a litle fucked-up ness in everybody can lead to death and destruction. Ultimately, presonalities like Don Emmmanuel, Remedios, the General and the Mexican musicologist illustrate de Bernieres' point that the power lies with an individual to make the world his own enclave.A side note of his genius is how ultimately Greek Corelli felt while he makes this book seem like it was written by a South American author. I prostrate myself in wonderment.
—Stephanie Augustin
Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition.Especially not in a 20th century setting, but effecively that' where this story goes. In essence this is a plea for tolerance, mutual respect and open mindedness and an illustration of what it miht mean to think that you have god on your side, and that god wants you to kill heretics. Human history is full of such atrocities.Exquisitely written, peppered with marvellous, unlikely and irresistable characters, full of warm humour and humanity, this book also has some hideous depictions of cruelty in it. I would not recommend it for younger readers, or anyone who cannot take a dash of horror in with their narrative.
—Nimue Brown
3.9/5This book (the last of the series) was way better than the second but it still cannot surpass the first one. I guess it has all its qualities but it's repetition and it becomes a bit tedious after some point. Actually, my excitement about the curve was shaped like an inversed U. At the beginning the level of ridiculousness and vulgarity was too much to bear (for me, at least). The passage describing Cardinal Guzman's daemons was in many ways too graphic (as so many other small details). Some scenes were just as 'graphic' but it didn't feel superfluous. Overall I've had fun with this book (and trilogy), although I fear I have not reconciled myself with magical realism. I've loved following the stories of some of the characters (not all of them, I couldn't care less about Emmanuel or Dionisio, I already had to put up with him for a whole book), accepting to follow this completely irrational and surreal plot has been quite... an experience.
—Teresa
