If anything, I think this book elucidates that the figure of Sor Juana, both historical and fictional, cannot be pigeonholed into one description: poet, lesbian, nun. She is all of those and yet much more. Her intellect and bravey in a sea of persecution is very admirable; some of her actions are human, and therefore not so admirable. Quite fascinating. ( )

I agree somewhat with Mambo. This book doesn't know if it's a history or a fictional tale. However, the book attempts to help in understanding wht roles were acceptable for women in this age and reminds us of how far we have or have not come. Sor Juana was tormented by inner and outer demons and had the strength to survive. In this respect, it is worthwhile to read. ( )

If there's one thing that Sor Juana devotees agree on, it's that the facts of her life are somewhat scant. In Sor Juana: Or, The Traps of Faith, Octavio Paz makes up for these holes by subjecting the life of Sor Juana to some heavy-handed neo-Freudian interpretations. That, and a lot of literary asides on the structure and content of Golden Age Latin American literature. In contrast, Alicia Gaspar de Alba takes what is a less academic approach that is probably no less valid. In Sor Juana's Second Dream: A Novel we're treated to a very personal account of what it might have been like to live the loves and struggles of Sor Juana. The rough outline of Sor Juana's life is followed, but this time all of the juicy bits stricken from the historical record have been added back in.

Books like this can be a lot of fun. It's an opportunity to take an historical figure shrouded in mystery and recreate a full-bodied woman, in this case in a sort of pastiche style one might call lesbian historical pulp fiction. My beef with this book lies in the occasionally exercised first person approach to telling the story. Sor Juana is largely revealed in this novel through fictionalized journal entries and letters. What might work with other subjects comes across as presumptuous. Due to the infantile tone and content, you're not likely to forget that the first person aspect of the novel is most definitely the fictionalized aspect of the story. I'm not convinced that Gaspar de Alba does justice to her subject, though it is a valiant effort.

At the end of the day, Sor Juana's poetry stands up very well on its own and speaks volumes of her own life. Fiction really isn't needed to stir our imaginations in order to fill in the gaps, though this is an instance where it is fun to try (and an unfortunate letdown when it doesn't quite succeed). ( )