OR I'LL DRESS YOU IN MOURNING

by arry & Dominique Lapierre Collins ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1968

From the City of Light to the Suit of Lights with the authors of Is Paris Burning? as they trace the rise of matador El Cordobes from anonymous, impoverished boyhood to fame and multimillionairedom. Collins and Lapierre have again chosen a magnetic subject which flashes fitfully. This less complex story with their multiview method has less meaning. The arrival of Manole Benitez represent and characterize the suffering and glory of Spain. In the small Andalusian town of Palma del Rio ruled by the autocratic landowner Don Felix Moreno, a tagged, hungry boy saw a stereotyped film of bullfighting that changed his life. He fought Moreno's bulls by moonlight until, to avenge public humiliation for orange stealing, he killed his seed bull and was exiled; there followed the years of struggle as one more maletilla trying to make it. Finally Rafael Sanchez, Manolete's manager, decided for him, pawned the family jewels to bring him into the arena -- at Palma. ""I'll either buy you a house or dress you in mourning,"" he told his sister Angelita. The saga of El Cordobes' emergence is framed by his great Madrid debut in the rain against half-blind and underpiced Impulsivo. The man who with his ""unkempt hair, angelic smile and his terrifying courage"" shook the fiesta brava to its foundations, now thirty-one with eight million in the bank, has tried to leave the arena but is a prisoner of his fame and the interests that rest on it. Collins and Lapierre perform professionally, create a story custom-made for the films and a substantial part of their earlier wide audience.

Pub Date: June 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION