Official Review: Tilted Windmills by Ann M Beardsley

[Sveta]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Tilted Windmills" by Ann M. Beardsley.]

This is the first time I'm posting review on here.

The book that I have reviewed is Tilted Windmills written by Ann M Beardsley. Tilted Windmills takes place in early 1600s in Spain and its an alternative universe of sorts for Don Quixote written by Miguel Cervantes. The book asks: what if Don Quixote was pretending to be mad instead of actually being mad? And then the question is why is he pretending to be mad, which results in this book.

When it came to characters in Tilted Windmills, I couldn't really connect to any of them in the book. Don Quixote is a genius detective who has lost his family, while Sancho is one of his friends and is well known for colorful jokes and for acting stupid. He is married and is soon to be grandfather. The reporter is captured by Moors, talks incessantly, annoys other characters and was sent by Don Quixote's friend's father. Other characters do include the priest, Marina the niece, the barber/doctor, Francisco and his wife Sofia, and Lerma and his progeny, but I couldn't connect to any of them.

I thought the theme of the book is find a purpose to live, and the plot of the book is that Tilted Windmills is written in first and third person narrative. The first person narrative includes Don Quixote, while third person narrative seems to include everyone else. I couldn't connect to the plot or the setting or anything else. I haven't read Don Quixote in its entirety thus a lot tended to be foreign to me, or unknown. Even though it was a common attitude back then, I did find the attitude towards Jewish people to be, well, offensive. Don Quixote seemed to be okay with it, but I didn't like that they saw Jewish people as "other" rather than like everyone else. I was also suprised by how little the attitudes changed since 1492 when Jews and Moors were expelled from Spain. There are some threads that aren't tied up neatly, and that apparently hint at Ann M Beardsley writing a sequel to Tilted Windmills.

What I knew of the author is If I'm not mistaken, Ann M Beardsley was fascinated by the Don Quixote legend and wrote this book, or rather put a spin on the legend. I read in her biography that she has traveled to Spain numerous times. I'm sorry that I don't know much else about her.

Ultimately, in my opinion I really did want to enjoy this book, but alas, I couldn't. Before mentioning the negative things, here are some that I did like; one was the interesting spin on the Don Quixote legend, and that apparently Ann M Beardsley does make sure to include some scenes such as the windmills as giants, or the interesting characterization of Miguel Cervantes. I also liked and would have wanted to see more of Don Quixote's detective skills as well. For the negative aspects, at first I had trouble understanding if the book takes place before or after the original Don Quixote, and then I couldn't really connect to the characters, although Ann M Beardsley does make an effort to get me to care about them. I have never read the original Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes, and thus I had trouble understanding the history of 1600s Spain, or importance of Don Quixote, and of what I should have learned from reading Tilted Windmills. I also felt that the chapters were a bit too long, for I'm someone that likes to read a full chapter, no matter the length before moving on to something else.

I have to rate this book 2 stars out of 4.

***
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[Misa-Jane]

Interesting review- I am one of those people who is an absurdly huge fan of Don Quixote, so I always like to hear about other works that have been inspired by it. I wonder whether having read Don Quixote first might make reading Beardsley's book easier to comprehend? It sounds like the structure, with Cervantes intruding into the story and a combination of different narrators, and even with the plots trailing off on occasion, is very much like the original work it was inspired by! Characterization was often fairly shallow in the original too- with characters often representing "types" more than individuals, and being very much subservient to the plot- although I think you are probably right to expect more focus on character in a modern take on the story.