The Living Infinite: A Novel

by Chantel Acevedo

Paperback, 2017

Call number

FIC CHA

Collection

Publication

Europa Editions (2017), 280 pages

Description

The Living Infinite is based on the true story of the Spanish princess Eulalia, an outspoken firebrand at the Bourbon court during the troubled and decadent final years of her family's reign. After her cloistered childhood at the Spanish court, her youth spent in exile, and a loveless marriage, Eulalia gladly departs Europe for the New World. In the company of Thomas Aragon, the son of her one-time wet nurse and a small-town bookseller with a thirst for adventure, she travels by ship first to a Cuba bubbling with revolutionary fervor then on to the 1893 Chicago World Fair. She is there as an emissary of the Bourbon dynasty and a guest of the Fair, but secretly she is in America to find a publisher for her scandalous, incendiary autobiography, a book that might well turn the old world order on its head.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member maryreinert
This is a fictionalized story of the Infante Eulalia of Spain, the woman who served as her wet nurse, and the son of the wet nurse. Amalia took the position of wet nurse hoping to get money for her family. By doing so she was thrust into life at the palace of the King and distant queen who bore
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Eulalia, the youngest of her children. Tomas, Amalia's son (milk brother to Eulalia) are infants together. Later as grown ups, Eulalia and Tomas cross paths and he eventually becomes her secretary.

Eulalia travels to Cuba during the Cuban war for Independence from Spain and in spite of the Cubans hating the Spanish, she manages to charm the crowds. Then she goes to New York, and eventually to the World's Fair where she is quite a celebrity. Before leaving Spain, Eulalia wrote of her experiences as a Infante bringing to life the world of arranged marriages (she is in a marriage without love), the suffocating world of royalty, and basic rights for women. No one in Spain will publish the book and Tomas brings it to the United States.

Based on the real Eulalia, a woman who did write of her life, the book is interesting and takes a look at one of the first feminists.
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LibraryThing member booklove2
I usually have a tough time with historical fiction using people who were once actually alive. It's something about putting words into their mouth. Any fictional story will have to do that - even with the best of intentions, if you went back in time and press the book into their hands, would that
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person be okay with it? Especially if a reader doesn't know much about someone like the princess Eulalia of Spain. I didn't. But I think Eulalia would like this book. This book also follows the story of Eulalia's nodriza and the wet nurse's son. A famous person, the infanta and one not so famous, the milk brother. The format is interesting - spending time with the two of them as children, but then separating when Eulalia doesn't need a wet nurse anymore. But then their paths cross when they are young adults. Overall, this is a very fluid, vivid novel. The characters of Eulalia and Tomas, the milk brother are both equally present and full of heart, as it moves from Spain to Cuba to the US during the Chicago Worlds Fair. Usually I can compare a book to other books, but this one is tough to do so, maybe because I'm usually not reading historical fiction. But this book surprised me in how much I liked it. Tomas has a deep love for Jules Verne's books and somehow this does share a quality of Verne's books that I can't really describe. I'd say if you liked this book, try 'Galapagos Regained' by James Morrow - kind of a weird mix of Jules Verne and this one.Overall, an interesting piece of literature featuring people or a place I don't know much about.
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Pages

280

ISBN

9781609454319
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