This book was really interesting, despite being short and on a topic which doesn't interest me at all- bullfighting. It is told almost in diary format by the author, a Scottish woman who is suicidal, and she takes on the project of writing the book as a means of escaping her life. It discusses a wide range of things such as the sport's history, links with faith, the famous faces associated with the sport, and the many traditions that accompany it.
I particularly liked the parts that explained the uniform that the matadors/ torreros/ picadors/ peones and novilleros wear, as Kennedy goes into full detail about what they look and feel like, how they are constructed, what they are made from, the price and history of the different items. Considering I thought it was just like wearing a costume to perform in, I found it enjoyable to discover some new facts that I would otherwise never have known.
The language that she uses is passionate and shows the reader that it is a subject that she enjoys discussing, and I think it is obvious that she uses it as an escape from the depression from which she suffers. An example of this writing is:
'Lorca, who followed the corrida and who, in his youth, even had himself carried through the streets of Granada, costumed and bloodied as if he were a matador who had received a fatal cornada (The term for all but the most glancing penetration by a bull's horn.)...He was a friend of Ignacio Sanchez Mejias, a gentle-eyed, polymath, bisexual and wholly reckless killer of bulls. After Mejias' death in the ring, Lorca wrote a poem in his memory.'
It was a different read to my normal, and at times was a little self-indulgent, but overall was well worth dipping into, especially as at only 167 pages, it doesn't take much time to complete.
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