The Pope's Daughter

August 31, 2015
Nobel laureate Fo explores Renaissance Italy through the eyes of one of its most notorious women in this slow-moving novel. Legend has it that Lucrezia Borgia, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI, was an unparalleled beauty who seduced and threatened her way into positions of power in league with her brother, Cesare, a high-ranking cardinal. But Fo's portrayal of Lucrezia paints her in a much more sympathetic light: she's an independent thinker, "tossed into the gaping maw of financial and political interests both by her father and her brother, without a qualm," though she's not content to merely serve as a pawn in her family's power plays. Instead of a temptress who was complicit in the murder of one of her three husbands, she's portrayed as a woman who loved deeply and paid dearly for her father and brother's political machinations. Over the course of a short life, Lucrezia acts as administrator of several major cities, a financial reformer, and even, temporarily, the head of the Catholic Church. Her legendary love affair with the poet Pietro Bembo is rendered as a star-crossed love. Unfortunately, this awkward translation renders Fo's prose stilted and didactic. Traces of his biting wit remain in the dialogue, where sarcastic banter between Lucrezia and her diabolical relatives is as snappy as it doubtless was in the original Italian, but it's not enough to elevate the story above its tedious narrative passages.

June 1, 2015
In his debut novel, Nobel-winning playwright Fo draws a portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, she of infamy. Was Lucrezia "a monster, a poisoner, and a prostitute?" Or "a beauty [who] emanates...generosity, enthusiasm, passion, and willingness to make sacrifices for those she loves?" Lucrezia enthralls Fo, and he signals his enthusiasm with arch, knowing humor directed at the reader. Fo's not alone, either; he discovers that "de Bayard, the legendary knight," said Lucrezia "was lovely and courteous and kind to one and all." Lucrezia had the good fortune, and misfortune, to be born to Rodrigo Borgia, House of Aragon. Young Rodrigo traveled to Rome, soldiered a bit, became a cardinal, met Vannozza Cattanei, and started a family in a time when "it was quite accepted for a man of the church to carry on openly reckless relations with women." Next Rodrigo "decided...to have himself elected to the highest ecclesiastic office," becoming Pope Alexander VI. With that, daughter Lucrezia becomes a pawn in a game played out through Italian city-states all the way to France. Best enjoyed by those familiar with the Italian Renaissance, Fo's novel features Lucrezia as the character best drawn, captured in the mirror of her contemporaries' perceptions. More than one descends into rapture over "the beauty that Lucrezia carries within her." It's her brother Cesare who builds the Borgian reputation for treachery, "great cunning...a true condottiere," tainting Lucrezia in the process. In this deft translation, there's a historical plethora of saints and sinners, arranged marriages and forced annulments, wars and murders, names like Ludovico the Moor and Giuliano della Rovere, and even bit parts for Copernicus and Machiavelli. Entertaining historical revisionism, with Fo's Lucrezia more femme fatale than incestuous poisoner.

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September 15, 2015

Given her notoriety and the racheted-up psychodrama of Showtime's recent The Borgias, it's at first almost off-putting but finally refreshing to read Nobel Prize winner Fo's low-key account of Lucrezia Borgia, the Pope's daughter. This debut novel initially reads like history and, as it closes in on Lucrezia herself, offers crisp dialog and stage-setting narrative--not surprising, as Fo is primarily a playwright. Fo strips away the smoky layers of myth to present the Borgias in their essence, with Lucrezia shown to be more sinned against than sinning. VERDICT Pleasurable, to-the-point reading for those who eschew fanfare.

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