Identities

“After hundreds of years, if there were so many sinners left, what had the Inquisition accomplished? They might root out Jews and Muslims and Erasmists and alumbrados, but then what was left?” (p. 367)

“When Luzia had seen the burnt bread, she hadn’t thought much about passing her hand over it and singing the words her aunt had taught her, “Aboltar kazal, aboltar mazal.” A change of scene, a change of fortune. She sang them very softly. They were not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish. But Doña Valentina would never have her in this house, even in the dark, hot, windowless kitchen, if she detected a whiff of Jew. Luzia knew that she should be careful, but it was difficult not to do something the easy way when everything else was so hard.” (p 6)

From the beginning, The Familiar is a book about secrecy and identity. Luzia, at the center of the novel,  has both an out-facing identity as a servant in an impoverished upper-class home in late-medieval Spain, and also a secret identity as a Jew who would like to flee to Salonika where she could practice her true religion openly. The novel adds an element of magical realism to this identity: Luzia can also do magic. 

Here is  Luzia’s view of the conversion which her ancestors had experienced a few generations earlier:

“Their great religion can make bread into flesh and wine into blood. But they don’t believe that any amount of holy water or prayer can truly make a Jew a Christian.” (p. 121)

“I have been baptized, she reminded herself. She went dutifully to mass. She knew her Pater Noster, the Ave Maria and Salve Regina, her psalms and commandments. She would happily eat ham and mend a dress after sundown on the Sabbath. And yet she felt her magic like a damning thread, binding her to the past, and to every Jew in every synagogue who still bent their head in prayer.” (p. 198)

The counter-theme of this book is a completely different identity: that of an immortal and magically created human-like being named Santángel who becomes Luzia’s friend and ally in struggling to survive and escape. He says: 

“In another life, in another world, I would be called a familiar. My gifts are not my own. They exist only to serve others. People fear me because I want them to, because their fear makes my life easier.” (p. 165)

The plot of this book is elaborate (maybe too much so). There are many twists as the stories of several characters are being told. That’s all I have to say about it. 

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