n  " البطولة عمل يُساء جزاؤه وكثيراً ما يقود إلى نهاية مبكرة ، لذلك يشد إليه شخصيات متعصبة أو مفتونة بالموت. قليلون هم الأبطال، أصحاب القلوب الرومانسية والدم الخفيف ، لنقل دون لف ولا دوران : إنه لا يوجد أحد مثل الثعلب ( زورو )."n

انتهت الرواية مع تنهيدة ارتياح لأن إيزابيل لم تخذلني ولانى استمتعت معها وبأسلوب سردها وقدرتها البارعة كحكاءة رائعة .إيزابيل أعتقد لأول مرة يكون بطل قصتها شخصية رجولية ، فهي هنا تقص علينا قصة دييغو دلابغا وكيف تحول إلى زورو الأسطوري .

تقص علينا إيزابيل الحكاية منذ البداية ليس فقط من طفولة دييغو لكن بدأت منذ كيفية لقاء أبيه وأمه ثم ولادته وطفولته وشبابه وسفره ومغامراته الصغيرة وكيفية تحوله إلى زورو الباحث عن تحقيق العدالة وأسباب ذلك والسر وراء الإسم .

n  " دييغو ، المرتدي بزة البهلوان السوداء والقناع ، اللباس الذي كان يسميه هو زورو. " n

n  n

إيزابيل بالطبع لا تكتفي كعادتها بالحديث فقط عن شخصياتها لكنها تعرض لنا الملامح التاريخية والسياسية لهذه الفترة من المستعمرات الاسبانية في امريكا وكيفية تعاملهم مع الهنود واستغلالهم لأصحاب الأرض الأصلين وثقافة هؤلاء وطبيعتهم ثم حالة أسبانيا في فترة احتلال نابليون وما بعدها .

إيزابيل مغرمة بالتفاصيل لذا من الطبيعي ان تكون احيانا هناك تفاصيل وحكايات قد يشعر البعض معها بالملل لكنى لم أشعر معها بالملل فأنا كنت متشوقة للقراءة لها كما انى من محبي أسلوب إيزابيل .

كنت اعتقد أن الرواية ستكون ممتلئة بمغامرات اكثر من ذلك لكن إيزابيل اختارت أن يكون تركيزها عن حياته وعن كيف أصبح زورو.

n  " في حياة زورو ، كما في كل حياة، هناك لحظات متألقة وأخرى مكفهرة، لكن بين الطرفين مناطق كثيرة محايدة." n

رحلة ممتعة ولذيذة ، بها الحرية والصداقة والحب والمغامرة والفكاهة .
أحببت علاقته مع صديقه برناردو التي بدأت منذ ميلادهم فكان اخوه بالرضاعة رغم تحفظ والده لانه كان من الهنود إلا أن صداقتهم كانت أقوى من أى اعتبارات فكانوا السند الحقيقي لبعضهم البعض دوماً.
اعجبتني ايضا جدته البومة البيضاء رغم ندرة ظهورها إلا انها فرضت الاحترام والإعجاب .

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همراهی دو اسم (زورو +ایزابل آلنده) به تنهایی میتواند شما را به خواندن این کتاب ترغیب کند.
داستانی دارای تمام مولفه های جذاب برای یک کتابخوان یعنی عشق ، فقر و ثروت ، مبارزه و جنگ و گریز ، افسانه و سیاست و... که با قلمی شیرین و روان با رگه هایی از طنز نوشته شده و به راحتی شما را با قهرمان‌های کتاب همدل و همراه میکند.
عدم یکدستی در شخصیت پردازی ، افت ریتم در فصل 4 و شتابزدگی در اتمام داستان ، از نقاط ضعف داستان است ولی این دلیلی برای نخواندن کتاب و لذت بردن از آن نیست.

Welcome, summer. I know it is not officially summer for another few weeks, but I will always view the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day as the summer season, the best season of the year. This is time for relaxed days, baseball, and late nights reading, and, yes, I viewed summer as such long before I turned to teaching. Before the last day of school, I selected my June books carefully, books that I had wanted to read for ages but had no time or passed over them in lieu of easy reading. Who better than to start my summer than Isabel Allende. I have been reading Allende’s books for over thirty years. In her prime, she merited being one of the best storytellers to come out of Latin America. At her best when describing Chile or turning to her personal brand of magical realism, Allende began my love of Latinx culture that is still going strong. Zorro is not set in Chile nor does it contain much magical realism; however, it is an action adventure story written to be read in the summer months when the spirit of adventure is high. It is with such a book that I began my summer reading.

California has been Allende’s home for a good portion of her life. In reading her memoirs, I learned of her writing process to discover that she desired to learn about the legends in her adopted homeland. Allende has noted that California is similar to Chile in terrain so she has been able to write about the state with gusto. Her familiarity and love for the area began with Daughter of Fortune, a favorite of mine, and has played a role in subsequent novels. When Allende begins formulating ideas for new books, always on January 8, one year the idea that crept into her head was the legend of Zorro. The masked man has been around in American imaginations for decades, and has been visualized for as long as there have been radio and television programs featuring the hero. My husband grew up in Central America, and he heard of Zorro as well; the man was obviously a Hispanic and a hero to the entire region. Yet who was Zorro in terms of historical context? While at her best, Allende’s historical fiction rivals that of any writer, and she desired to tell the story of Zorro in terms of the history of California long before it became a state. This is a California owned by Spain prior to Mexican independence, the age of missions and haciendas, and a symbiotic relationship with native Americans. This is the land that Zorro grew up in.

Allende decided to formulate Zorro’s story in terms of a hero’s odyssey. From the first page, she employed a chronicler to tell his story, and, even though it is clear that Zorro is the main protagonist, the narrative is told in third person. I could picture a narrator telling this tale at a California mountain campfire long after Zorro’s swashbuckling days had ended. The stage had been set and tone reeled me in. Born in California to a Spanish father and native mother, Diego de la Vega was the only son and heir to the de la Vega hacienda. His father governed the Pueblo de Los Angeles, then a town of four streets, and was a respected and wealthy man. One day, the hacienda would belong to Diego and he was expected to carry on his father’s small empire. Although indigenous peoples were not considered the equal of whites, Diego’s best friend was his milk brother Bernardo, the son of the de la Vega’s servant Ana. The two grew up together and went on childhood adventures that involved capturing a grown bear and undergoing the trials of Diego’s mother’s tribe. Toypurnia had been a warrior and her mother White Flame a medicine woman and respected leader. These women had as much of a role in Diego’s upbringing as did his father Alejandro, who enrolled his son in school and trained him in the rudiments of fencing. At age fifteen, the first portion of his education complete, Diego de la Vega sailed to Barcelona, an old, mythical city, to complete his training.

Although the story of Zorro is considered historical fiction by many, I would categorize it more as an action adventure story. The best nonfiction reads like a story, and Zorro’s is a page turner. Hollywood has turned Zorro into a crusader for justice, and that is exactly who the Zorro in these pages is. Along with his friends, he becomes a champion of prisoners, slaves, and persecuted peoples. Not exactly Robin Hood because Zorro did not always have money from the rich to give to the poor, Zorro cared more about winning peoples’ freedom. He had a heart of gold. On the seas, he befriended the ship captain who was a member of La Justicia, the league for justice. It happened that his fencing master Manuel Escalante was also a leader of this league, and after trading with his master for years, Diego underwent the trials to join. As a member, he could crusade for justice, and it was at this time that he began to develop a second identity, that of Zorro. His personality was part Diego, part Zorro, and, according to his chronicler, the complete transformation would not occur until years later. These are the elements of an odyssey and had me captivated because I wanted to read to discover just what would be Zorro’s next adventure.

Diego stayed in Spain for five years and grew into a man. This story is not without a villain or it would not be a hero story. Zorro’s foil is a man named Rafael Moncada, his rival for the heart of Juliana de Tomeu. Juliana and her sister Isabel are the daughters of Señor de Tomeu, an old army mate of his father’s. The young ladies are like his sisters, but Juliana is a beauty, and both Diego and Moncada desire her hand. With money Moncada has the means to persue Juliana to the ends of the earth, and it is Diego using Zorro’s cunning who helps both sisters escape Spain. There are adventures along the way- traveling with gypsies, sea travel, pirates, and a stop on Jean Lafitte’s island. Inserting the famed pirate into this tale heightens the adventure and spices it up. As the book drew toward its denouement, the story dulled because Diego had no rival. I knew there had to be a closing action, so adding the pirates sped along the narrative. Whether or not the real Zorro encountered pirates in real life is the stuff of legend, but as a trained swashbuckler he was at LaFitte’s level with the sword. It would have spiced things even more if the two had joined forces and gone off on adventures together, but they were destined to go on different paths. Allende inserts her views at this point, which I am not always a fan of, denouncing slavery and the pirate’s life, noting the caste system of races in early 19th century New Orleans. It is of little surprise to me that she returns to this setting in further writing.

The story is Zorro’s and is the stuff of legend and mythology before modernizing of California. The 20th century version of the masked crusader has been Hollywoodized, which is how most people see him, think Antonio Banderas fencing. Zorro comes from a time when California belonged to Spain, and the white Spaniards still used missions to Catholicize the native peoples. Some priests let the natives be, but most believed the indigenous people to be heathens who needed to join the church. This theme has made an appearance in other of Allende’s early books. As a storyteller at the height of her career, Allende is one of the best. It is why I was drawn to her early writing, which also contained the stuff of romance and adventure. Zorro combines all of these elements at a higher level; however, the novel has been critiqued for not containing magical realism. While those are Allende’s best, the master writers are proficient in more than one genre. The story of Zorro fits the bill and then some, creating a new level to his mystique. This height of her career Allende remains one of my favorite writers and has been a fun way to kick off my summer reading.