The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire in The Roundtable

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Dec 17, 2009 Petra rated it liked it

An easy-going read. The book is a history book written as a novel and, as such, loses some sharpness as to purpose. The author states, in an epilogue, that she wrote this as a fiction in order to be able to bring the people and "their heart" into the book. In that, she fails. The conversations and thoughts of these people in this book do not bring the people to life or add in any way to this interesting period of history.
This is an interesting story, though. It's not one I've heard of before bu An easy-going read. The book is a history book written as a novel and, as such, loses some sharpness as to purpose. The author states, in an epilogue, that she wrote this as a fiction in order to be able to bring the people and "their heart" into the book. In that, she fails. The conversations and thoughts of these people in this book do not bring the people to life or add in any way to this interesting period of history.
This is an interesting story, though. It's not one I've heard of before but then, I don't know anything about Mexican history.
In short, Maximillion Hapsburg is convinced to rule Mexico. In three short years, he manages to "adopt" the son of Angel & Alicia Iturbide and spend the Mexican treasury, as well as put the country deep into debt. This is the story of those three years, concentrating namely on Alicia's drive to get her son back.
The different sides and positions of all the main characters are well arranged and put together. Even without knowing Mexican history, the pieces fall into place. History has, of course, two sides as to whether Maximillion is a hero or villain to the Mexican people of today. The author is clearly in the camp of "other researchers consider him short-sighted in political and military affairs, and unwilling to restore democracy in Mexico".
There are flaws that make this book more lackluster than it may have been: the characters are flat, their conversation/thoughts add nothing to the situations, story or depth of this story (for example, there are 2 1/2 pages where Maximillion discusses with a guest about where the most beautiful sunset is in the world.....sweet, poetic but irrelevant to the story), smaller storylines are dropped without resolution (what happened to Lupe?). There are repetitions of events from different viewpoints but all viewpoints say that same thing and don't add any details.
However, ignoring the above flaws, this book is "history-lite": it leans towards being a light, breezy non-fiction book that supplies details but not too much background or history of the people or country; it supplies thoughts & conversations that are mundane, it is a story of the moment without a lead in to the situation or how it developed.
It's interesting story and perhaps a fascinating one but its not spectacularly told. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 31, 2016 Karen Michele Burns marked it as to-read

Like

From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

What Members Thought

The Roundtable