Crucifixus - Belinda Tobin - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Belinda Tobin

GENRE: Historical Fiction.

PUBLICATION DATE: November 1, 2024.

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A historical fiction about the practice of using castrati as singers and also the challenges faced by women in the 17th century. A bold attempt at highlighting the now-forgotten castrato voice and the sacrifices involved in achieving that range. However, the plot inclusions were mostly depressing (even more than I had anticipated) and some key details were missing. I’d still recommend the book to those who focus more on plot and can go with the flow while reading.

Plot Preview:

Widowed Rosa has to take care of her six children, ranging in age from young teen to just a baby. So when her seven-year-old son Paulo, who has a beautiful voice, is chosen by a scout to become a castrato and train at a private music college, she feels like God, in whom she has unwavering faith, has sent his blessings on her little one. Torn apart from his family, Paulo has no choice but to immerse himself into his new world, where harsh schedules, extreme corporal discipline, and lack of freedom are the norm.

Back in Rosa’s house, Antonio, her eldest son who is eleven, is angered by his mother’s decision to send his brother for mutilation. The eldest girl, Francesca, thirteen, loves to sing but cannot as her mother insists it is against the faith. Another son Luca dreams of becoming an astronomer, but can such ambition turn to reality for a poor boy from a farming family?

The story comes to us in the third-person perspectives of ALL these characters, and more.

As an active member of my church choir and as someone who finds great joy in gospel music, I was immediately hooked by the premise of this novel. I had never heard of the castrato voice, and learning the ugly truth behind it further confirmed the deviousness of the medieval/early-modern era.

I knew that reading this book would possibly be a horrendous experience on my mind, especially as I don’t do well with tales of child brutality. However, the story turned out to be more traumatising than I expected. Much to my surprise, the arc connected to the castrato was not the worst one for me to read.

There are several key characters in the book, and each come with their own demons. Rosa battles early widowhood, her confusion and guilt over her decision to send Paulo to become a castrato, and possibly, extremely painful menstrual cramps, all viewed by her through the lens of a strong faith in God. Antonio bears the burden of being the eldest son and the necessity to be the man of the house, even when his idea of manhood is more like a show of physical dominance. His arc was the most disturbing for me to read peacefully; I started feeling agitated as soon as his name popped up. Then there’s Francesca, burdened to be the woman of the house when her mother is too caught up with her pain, and also shackled by the restriction placed on her singing. She was my favourite character in this story, as she seemed to be the only one who knew how to make the best of her situation within her limited means. Luca, with his ambitious dreams, is curtailed by the lack of financial resources, so when an escape route comes, he doesn’t hesitate to chose it, even if it means great personal sacrifice. In all this miserable mess, we also read about Paulo, his life in the college where he undergoes rigorous training as a castrato, and his later life post training.

As you can see, there is no joyful or hopeful arc in any of the above characters’ lives. As such, almost the entire book reads like an endless series of doom and gloom, making it a very intense experience. I do appreciate how the author kept some of the more brutal scenes such as the actual castration procedure or some perverted abuse scenes off the page. (They were like closed-door scenes, stopping just before the crucial point.) However, what is there on the page is also very aggravating. I know some readers like books that depict misery after misery, but such stories aren’t for me. So this is a ME problem than a BOOK problem.

Some readers might struggle with the number of character arcs, but as each of these was in third person and written with distinct-enough voices, I had no trouble keeping all the characters’ individual stories clear in my mind. But it did taken me time to know the characters, as both the prologue and the main plot had multiple characters.

What stopped me from getting a better handle on the events was the lack of some key detailing. If the blurb had not mentioned “17th century”, I’d have not known what time frame to place this story in. It feels historical, but knowing the year is always better – 17th century can be anytime from 1601 to 1700, a vast and varied time period. There are many instances for which I have some doubts, but as the exact year and even the exact place isn't mentioned (we just know it’s somewhere in Italy), I cannot check if my queries point to an incorrect or anachronous inclusion, or if such practices actually existed then. (For instance, would girls from poor farming families be sent to school? Did midwives use stitches?)

Furthermore, the timeline is very tricky as there are zero references to years and only a couple of mentions of character ages. The story spreads over more than a decade, but as it comes to us from the third-person POVs of a multitude of characters, the timelines aren’t exactly linear. Sometimes, a character’s arc begins at an earlier timepoint until it catches up and moves ahead.

Knowing how old the character is at each point of their story is thus a difficult task. Antonio, for instance, is said to be eleven at the start of the book, but he sounds and behaves like an adult. We immediately hear his mother talking about getting him married and even speaking to the parish priest to find him a wife, leaving me befuddled about whether marriages were the norm for boys of this age. A few pages later, we see that the two have agreed that seventeen is a good age for marriage. After many more chapters, we learn that he is of “suitable age” and hence to be married, but how old is he? It was all quite confusing!

The prologue had a powerful scene set in the Vatican that took us straight to the crux of the debate about the legitimacy of the castrati practice from both sides of the argument. This scene had quite a few characters, but most of them except for Bellarmine and the Pope (Don't know if it was the same Pope who came later as no papal names have been provided) don’t reappear in the story. I simply wasted time noting down these characters’ names and their perspectives in the debate. Moreover, there is a mild hint of magical realism in the prologue, but it stays unutilised and the rest of the book is firmly realism-oriented. (I’m still not sure if I imagined the magical bit!)

There are many hymns and prayers regularly included in the content. Some of the hymns were beautiful and a couple were even familiar to me. But after a point, I just started skipping over them as they broke my reading flow. However, I do need to point out that Kyrie Eleison isn't the same as Lamb of God, which is the Agnus Dei, though the words might appear a bit similar.

Most of the above issues aren’t major plot flaws and could have been sorted out by a good editorial eye.

The author’s note, which for some reason is marked as ‘Epilogue’, is fairly informative and helpful. I was stunned when I read that the practice of using castrato singers lasted till the late 19th century! She also mentions the last castrato as his is the only recorded castrato voice. I heard two of his recordings online and honestly, his soprano pitch gave me goosebumps! An angelic voice, though it wasn’t even recorded in his prime singing years. If only it wasn’t the result of such a brutal practice!

All in all, this book had plenty to offer, much more than I was mentally prepared for. The details about the life of the castrati, the superstitious faith in religion, the corruption of the profiteers and rich patrons, and the misogynist attitude of the patriarchal world come out really well. I just wish it had balanced the distressing content with a few more joyous moments and had included the year/age/location references necessary to gauge the characters and their behaviour better.

If you like character-oriented historical storylines highlighting a part of history not often seen in fiction, and you are open to reading disturbing narratives with multiple character perspectives, this indie novel could work better for you.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via the Library Thing Early Reviewers Program. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.