The First Superhero with a Literary Sensibility

books:


	• Zorro: A Novel Isabel Allende, 2005 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 124 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A joyous romp

There I was roaming the bookstore with a gift certificate in my hands. I did not have to spend it on something sensible or be practical and buy paperbacks. Zorro with its red, black and white dust jacket almost assaulted my eyes. Zorro, by Isabel Allende. Why, I read everything by her. I have loved her stories of young women, romance in the classical sense, family and spirits. Allende, in my opinion, is one of the best modern storytellers alive.

Who is that mysterious masked man? Not the Lone Ranger, although the Lone Ranger might have been based upon this character. Allende tells her own story of Diego de la Vega, son of an aristocratic Spaniard and a Shoshone warrior woman. I have no idea what is fact and what is fiction and, care not a wit. There is warmth, love, true friendship, cruelty, heroes and heroines, villains and adventure from California to Barcelona and back again.

Diego a.k.a. Zorro loves passionately, becomes a fencing master, rescues those in distress, duels at dawn, confronts pirates often shadowed by his enemy, Rafael Moncada, and more often in the company of Bernardo, his childhood friend.

All of the action (which takes place between 1790 and 1815) is a joyous romp. Allende writes as if she is telling you and me and maybe a few others her story. An example is:

"We have come to the fifth and last part of this book. We shall soon be saying good-bye, dear readers, since the story ends when the hero returns to where he began, transformed by his adventures and by obstacles overcome. This is the norm in epic narratives from the Odyssey to fairy tales, and I shall not be the one to attempt innovation."

In the midst of the story, one also gets a true picture of Spanish colonial California and Old Barcelona under corrupt Napoleonic rule. Once again, Allende has captured my imagination and my heart.

by Judith Helburn
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

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It Was Fun

Initially, I shied away from Zorro, having purchased it as a gift for my wife, who never read it. I have always liked Allende, but mostly her earlier novels. And I figured it had "chick book" written all over it (too many associations with Antonio Bandeiras). But I was pleasantly surprised by this entertaining, Dumas-esque, Sabatini-esque, historical novel based mostly on the fictional life of Diego de le Vega and the antecedents to the Zorro character. The passages taking place in Barcelona and the descriptions of the Napoleonic era there were very well done. There was way less swashbuckling, and blood-letting than I expected, and I would not characterize it as an especially "action" oriented novel. Still, it held my interest most of the way through, with a definite lag toward the end as the setting of the novel moves to New Orleans and Jean Lafitte takes center stage. I would have gotten the scissors out for that 75 pages or so. Otherwise, it found Zorro intriguing and fun.

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Zorro

Title: Zorro
Author: Isabel Allende
Genre: Novel

Synopsis: The story of the young man Zorro, and how he came to be the masked legend. Born from a marriage of a rich Spanish man and a native American woman, Diego lives in both worlds. As he grows, he feels strongly the injustices that have been perpetuated against the native occupants of California, causing him to create the alternate persona of Zorro, who attempts to bring some more equality to the world.

Quote: "The fox saved you. That zorro is your totemic animal, your spiritual guide."

Grade: B
Review: I picked this book up on the recommendation of a friend, not expecting to enjoy it too much because I have no particular affinity for Zorro. However, I ended up liking it very much. You don't have to be heavily steeped in the Zorro mythology to get on board with good versus evil, righteousness versus injustice, genius underdog versus somewhat thick bad guys.

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Wonderful!

Isabel Allende is a wonderful, magnetic author. Zorro is a must read (or hear via audio). Beginning with Zorro's childhood Allende develops a magnetic character in a hero-in-process. Zorro's life and development into a folk hero take us into many vibrant "historical" situations, and we meet marveious and intriquing characters in the Native Americans of California, the gypsies of Spain, pirates of New Orleans and just plain rogues of early California. Like the other Allende books I've read, Zorro moves quickly; it was very hard to "put down." I listened to the audio version and shared it with three others who thought it equally marvelous. The print version was purchased for my grown son who was completely swept up in the story. I will read Zorro again some day.

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The First Superhero with a Literary Sensibility

Allende's "Zorro" contains Creoles and is itself a Creole: A seemingly odd, even daring mixture of the pulp genre with a literary flair. The result works far better than one might expect. Zorro, with his mild mannered playboy affection and crime fighting costumed identity inspired imitators such as The Shadow, who in term directly inspired Bob Kane and Bill Finger to create Batman, leading to innumerable others. Zorro has thus shaped popular culture for most of a century, as few other creations.
In Allende's treatment, Zorro is both more literary and more mainstream. Oddly, despite her South American origin, Allende has made Zorro more American (meaning North American). Zorro now contains a mixture of Spanish and Native American blood, learning from the best of both traditions. His adventures take him to a highly colorful New Orleans, for example, and show far more of American history than the original novel (which was vague on all things historical).
The author balances the need for swordplay, the desire to illuminate American history, the literary imperative for tracing origins, and the popular novelist's need for soap opera. Yet it all works.

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