Cervantes Street

By: Jaime Manrique / Narrated By: Roger Wayne

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Hmmm… I have the feeling that this COULD’ve been great… except for the dratted narration!

At first I thought the problem I was having with Cervantes Street was that I’d just hit Wikipedia for its entry on Miguel de Cervantes, and this story seemed to follow that entry, like, almost verbatim. At least that’s how it felt to me: Miguel has to flee Spain after nearly killing a man in a fight—it’s either that or have his hand lopped off as punishment. Miguel serves nobly and is wounded in a naval battle, shot in the chest, and loses the use of one of his hands. Miguel is captured by pirates and serves as a slave in Algiers for five years until he is ransomed then comes back to Spain where he is largely unknown and unsuccessful. That he’s always been a poet and a storyteller FINALLY serves him well when he writes Don Quixote and the world of literature is completely and unutterably changed.

See? While that sounds pretty exciting, listening to it kinda is not.

But then I reeeeally started paying attention to the writing and, while I’d been leery of Roger Wayne as the narrator from the get-go, that’s where I came to know that the flaws in the story were his choice as the narrator.

First, this is written in such a noble fashion, following the courtly speech and airs of old Spain. So why on earth wouldn’t a narrator of Spanish lineage be brought onboard? There is some truly lovely language here, but it’s all lost in the flat “normal” voice of Wayne. He narrates with urgency, but there is nooooo nobleness, no sense that we’re currently visiting a society that thinks of honor first and foremost.

Author Jaime Manrique crafts some lovely sentences, creates some stunning images, and presents us with what COULD’ve been some good characters in that this isn’t a story of just Miguel, but also of his friend and, tho’ not to his knowledge, his enemy, Luis Lara—once they were as close as brothers, but then Miguel had the temerity to write to Luis’s love, to seek her out, and Luis never felt such jealousy, such rage. It’s told from their viewpoints along with Luis’s scribe, who holds his employer in little esteem.

This is a story of how jealousy kills, of how love bears up the spirit (Luis, Miguel, respectively). And, once again, it’s well-written. When Miguel is a prisoner in Algiers, we’re treated to the horrible cruelty he survives, the atrocious conditions are lived by us through vivid, vivid prose (Think bloated and broken bodies decomposing; think of starving men scrambling for the scraps thrown away by fisherman). But precious little of that comes through as narrated by Wayne. Though the book isn’t 9 hours long, it could’ve still been an epic with its fearless and unsparing writing.

Alas, it is not. And though the last line did come through loud and clear, and it had me guffawing, I’ve gotta tell ya: I was sorely disappointed by this. After listening to Don Quixote, I reeeeally wanted to know more about the man who wrote it, reeeeeally wanted to know about the fake sequel that came out that made Cervantes write and publish the Part 2 of the book. I’m glad I heard this story, especially as it addresses that “faux Quixote” in such a clever way, but I think I would’ve loved it had I read it in print rather than listened to it.

Loved the characters in this (Especially the brave Sancho Panza!); loved the writing. DISLIKED the narrator! Seriously, I dunno know if Publishers choose who does the honors, but I’ll blame them seeing as I already dislike how they manage their Summaries, but somebody with waaaay more gravitas should’ve had the honor of narrating this book as Wayne could NOT manage it at all.

So very sad.

-AND- Next time? I’m staying the heck away from Wikipedia before listening to something; my fault, my fault!