THE GOLD EATERS by Ronald Wright (Hamish Hamilton), 384 pages, $32 cloth. Rating: NNN
In The Gold Eaters, Ronald Wright recounts the meeting of colonizer and colonized from a striking viewpoint.
He traces the 16th-century conflict between Francisco Pizarro, leader of the invading Spanish forces, and Inca ruler Atawallpa, who initially cannot imagine that the bearded strangers are a threat to his nation.
Wright’s clever idea is to relate much of the narrative through the eyes of Waman, an Inca teen captured by the Spaniards who becomes their translator as the greedy Europeans, the titular Gold Eaters, aim both to acquire the golden riches of this newfound empire and convert the heathens to Christianity.
Many of the central characters are striking, including the moody Pizarro, who fights not only with the Inca ruler but also the rivals in his own camp the wily but vain Atawallpa and several of the Spanish company who become close to Waman, among them Molina, who through a strange twist of circumstances becomes part of Waman’s family, and the Greek sailor, Candia.
Waman himself, though, despite being set up as a character caught between the nature-worshipping culture of his birth and the Christianity of his masters (they rename him Felipe), isn’t as well drawn a figure, nor is the tale of Tika, the cousin he loves, as involving as it might be.
Wright creates some splendid scenes, many based on covert politicking: the early frustration of the Europeans when they can’t find the gold they’ve heard rumoured Pizarro’s attempts to convince the rulers of Spain that he should command a second expedition across the ocean the first meeting between the conquistador and the supercilious Atawallpa the investiture of a later Inca ruler.
These and other episodes almost beg for screen treatment.
Wright sits on IFOA’s Fact Or Fiction panel Thursday (October 29) and reads as part of How Civilized, Saturday (October 31), both at the Studio Theatre. See Readings.
