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Title: Something is Missing
Review: The book is about court poetry, court architecture, court philosophy, and how well courtiers felt cultivating their court culture. It is definitly NOT about the entire culture of al-Andalus. It is not about those who worked and suffered to pay the courtier lifestyle, the dependend farmers, the craftsmen, the merchants, etc. Their music, dance, food, workman skills, etc. is completly neglected. It is no wonder that Ms. Menocal wonders why the court culture was destroyed. Maybe a lot of people were not willing to pay for it any more. Worse, it is not about the international musicians and dancers, the gitanos who breathed life into Spanish culture. The book is written by a bourgois raised and educated in safe homes and university bubbles but definitly not by someone who ever took part in creating culture.
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