Douglas Abrams The Lost Diary Of Don Juan

The Lost Diary Of Don Juan

Douglas Abrams

Simon & Schuster, May 2007, $25.00

ISBN: 1416532501

In Seville, he was named Juan Tenorio, but his mother abandons him near a monastery. Nuns secretly raise and torture the child even as they train him to cherish and worship women. He eventually runs away from the nasty environs to become an outlaw. Eventually he meets the Marquis de la Mota, who teaches him to be a master spy, a master swordsman, and a master lover. He is so adept at the latter; some consider him to be a demon. Hearing word of the legend of lovemaking, the inquisitor general investigates Don, who refuses to wed even at the coaxing of his mentor as a means of saving his life. That is until he encounters the fiery warrior woman Dona Ana.

Using the device of finding Don Juan's diary to tell his story works brilliantly in Douglas Abrams' superior historical fictional memoir of the renowned lover from his perspective. By writing the saga through the journal, Don Juan becomes more than a one head joke as the audience sees a full blooded person with wants and desires that are not only in the boudoir. Interestingly when Don Juan describes a conquest (and not just with women), he waxes poetic like a romance writer. Readers will enjoy this fast-paced account of the world's greatest lover as he plunges into one escapade (and woman) after another.

Harriet Klausner