Sudden Death

Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue

It’s been a while since I’ve written a book review, so I thought I would ease into it by trying a different, albeit lazy format for it: 

How did I come across this book?

It was recommended in the American Literature section of the Nolita McNally Jackson (I worked there for a month and won’t stop talking about it). I was drawn to the colors on the cover and the subject of tennis in the Renaissance period. 

Why did I end up buying it? 

For one, I am slipping on the race against time to reach my Goodreads yearly goal, and at 261 pages, this book is on the shorter side so I thought I’d get through it quickly (I did not.) Additionally, the back cover painted an intriguing picture:

“A tennis match in sixteenth century Rome: Caravaggio plays against the Spanish poet Quevedo, Galileo is a line judge. The ball is made from the coveted hair of Anne Boleyn. There’s fighting, drinking, sexual liaisons, popes behaving badly, executions, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII plotting.”

If that doesn’t sound epic then I don’t know what will grab your attention.

Initial thoughts? 

This is not a book you will race through if you pay attention to detail. Additionally, to get the most out of it, it’s important to know a little bit of history- or google it. Sudden Death recounts- often inaccurately- a collection of references to historical figures and events, jumping from the past to the present, loosely joined by the narrative thread of a fictitious pallacorda (precursor to tennis) match/duel between the famous Spanish poet, Francisco de Quevedo and the Italian painter Caravaggio. Additionally, he recounts novelized episodes of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, specifically the relationship between Hernan Cortés and his Nahua lover, Malintzin, commonly known as La Malinche. How do these all connect? The aforementioned tennis balls stuffed with Anne Boleyn’s hair and a scapular made of the hair of the Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, both passed along though episodes of betrayal, conquest, and murder.

Overarching themes:

• The arbitrary tragedy that is history

• How historical narratives are formed

• How history has not been kind to women

• How language forms history 

• The conquest of the west 

Would I recommend it?

Yes! This book is snort out loud funny sometimes and is very clever. 

Look out for my upcoming reviews of Other Place by Rachel Cusk and Dunkin’s Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Xoxo Andrea