A review by giselav
La reina del sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
3.0
This is a book that I didn't mind reading, but I don't believe I would ever reread it or even recommend it to a friend.
Pérez-Reverte's Teresa is a character with the potential to be great. She's interesting and powerful, with a strong storyline revolving around her. And yet! And yet!
One of Teresa's main characteristics is that she is cold. She's detached from everything in her life, including life itself. She seems to cling to existence for no apparent reason other than that's all she's ever done. Her detachment reaches even the reader. Throughout 520 pages of this book, at no point did I feel connected to Teresa. Maybe it's because I can't relate to her story as a Mexican drug lord, but frankly I doubt anyone can relate to that.
I've read some other reviews about Pérez-Reverte drawing close parallels to Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo. As I've not read that book, I can't comment on this comparison, although I will say Pérez-Reverte's random odes to literature spread across the text always felt a little odd to me, as they were supposed to come from Teresa's string of consciousness and there's only so much I can do to believe she cared that much about the power of a good book.
I also gotta admit I disliked the ending. I won't spoil anything, but it just didn't feel like an adequate ending for such a long book.
Finally, I disliked how the story sometimes switched to the POV of a journalist writing a biography on Teresa Mendoza. I felt like it contributed little to the story and I disliked how judgemental the journalist was. If I don't know a character, why should I care for their opinions on someone else's clothes and drinking habits? These bits just felt out of place to me.
Overall the book is quite well written and interesting, but something about the human component felt amiss to me.
Pérez-Reverte's Teresa is a character with the potential to be great. She's interesting and powerful, with a strong storyline revolving around her. And yet! And yet!
One of Teresa's main characteristics is that she is cold. She's detached from everything in her life, including life itself. She seems to cling to existence for no apparent reason other than that's all she's ever done. Her detachment reaches even the reader. Throughout 520 pages of this book, at no point did I feel connected to Teresa. Maybe it's because I can't relate to her story as a Mexican drug lord, but frankly I doubt anyone can relate to that.
I've read some other reviews about Pérez-Reverte drawing close parallels to Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo. As I've not read that book, I can't comment on this comparison, although I will say Pérez-Reverte's random odes to literature spread across the text always felt a little odd to me, as they were supposed to come from Teresa's string of consciousness and there's only so much I can do to believe she cared that much about the power of a good book.
I also gotta admit I disliked the ending. I won't spoil anything, but it just didn't feel like an adequate ending for such a long book.
Finally, I disliked how the story sometimes switched to the POV of a journalist writing a biography on Teresa Mendoza. I felt like it contributed little to the story and I disliked how judgemental the journalist was. If I don't know a character, why should I care for their opinions on someone else's clothes and drinking habits? These bits just felt out of place to me.
Overall the book is quite well written and interesting, but something about the human component felt amiss to me.