I was really struck by the fluidity of positions between each person and his role. Mustafa as a free man growing up in Morocco, then as a merchant traI was really struck by the fluidity of positions between each person and his role. Mustafa as a free man growing up in Morocco, then as a merchant trading ruthlessly (including slaves), then his new identity as a slave in Portugal and later in an unfamiliar land, then as one of four survivors, where his survivor status negated his slave status since survival slowly grew more important than the idea of property. The same with Dorantes, it was fascinating to see his relationship with each of the other men change as the expedition wore on, and his illusions slowly fell away, and then when they were rediscovered again and went to New Spain, how the changes that he underwent slowly reversed themselves when he was surrounded by western greed. The novel is immensely moving and well researched, but not without flaws. As some of the other reviews have mentioned, Mustafa (Esteban) is almost too PC of a character, too modern in his open-mindedness. But though this is a flaw in terms of historical probability (he probably was not this enlightened), it didn't make me enjoy the book any less, as I didn't really read it for historical likeliness. He didn't seem like an unbelievable character. Yes, extraordinary and highly unlikely, but not impossible. And he definitely was not flawless, it's just that he learned from his earlier bad behavior (selling slaves, greed, etc.) and did not continue down that path. This book is like an action adventure novel with a soul. There were so many trials and so many emotions: joy, sadness, wonder, depression, anger. And later reading the real events this was based on (although we know almost nothing about Esteban), it seems highly believable that many of these things (or things very much like it) could have happened....more
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