I’m having an exceptional reading year thus far. I’ve managed to get ahold of some good ones.
Just finished The Moor’s Account, by Laila Lalami
I came to this one in a round about way: I was cheating on a crossword puzzle. The clue was — Author of The Moor’s Account — and the answer was, well, the author’s name. Ya gotta admit, Laila Lalami is a good crossword puzzle word. Anyway I was stuck on the puzzle, so I googled it, and in that process I found a book I wanted to read. So I did.
It’s a historical fiction novel about the 16th century Narváez expedition in the Americas, which ran into some rotten luck. Only 4 of the original explorers survived. One was Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Another was a dark-skinned Moroccan slave who went by the name, Estebanico.
Ten years or so ago I read Castaways, which is a translated version of Cabeza de Vaca’s account of the expedition. It is a fascinating first-person account of first contact between European and Native American peoples. The Moor’s Account more-or-less follows Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative but tells the story from Estebanico’s perspective. I think Ms Lalami saw through some of the whitewashing and BS in Cabeza de Vaca’s account and imagined what the story would have been like through Estebanico’s eyes. And who knows? She may have gotten closer to the truth through her fiction than Cabeza de Vaca did through his memoir.
The expedition started somewhere on Florida’s gulf coast, and meandered along the coast through Louisiana and Texas where the Spanish were shipwrecked, maybe due to a hurricane, and probably on Galveston Island. They were in quite poor shape by that time, but were helped by a group of indigenous people who found them on the beach. Later they were enslaved by the indians. Then there was a process of assimilation. The 4 survivors eventually married native women and somewhere along the line became pretty good at first aid and medicine, which gained them some respect with the indians. Anyway over the course of 8 years they traveled through the southwest making their way eventually to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way they built their reputation as healers and gained somewhat of a following. They were known as the Children of the Sun to the locals. Somewhere on the frontier of the Spanish Main they reestablished contact with the Europeans. In Castaways Cabeza de Vaca commented that he had trouble speaking Spanish again after going native for so long.
At any rate both books were fascinating reads. Of all the people here on the Litnet, I think Danik would really like The Moor’s Account. In some ways it reminded me a little of Gold Dust, by Ibrahim Al-Koni.
Currently reading 11/22/63, by Stephen King
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