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Title: Awful characters
Review: I am about halfway through this book and not sure whether I am going to be able to finish it. The writing is amazing and the historical details vivid -- but the main character is the most stupid, shallow, insipid creature I have ever come across. She leaves her faith and her people because she has fallen in love with a Christian prince. The main reason for her love seems to be that said prince has blue eyes and good legs. She loses her virginity to him after seeing him about three times, and then is shocked when he leaves her. The other characters are all stereotypes -- narrow-minded rabbis and priests, spirited, beautiful young women, and domineering wives. The latter two types of character persist despite the author's view that everyone in Renaissance Italy hated women and was comitted to subjugating them. This book IS a fast-paced page-turner, so it makes a wonderful read as long as you don't need any characters to identify with.
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