The Moment of Truth
A Novel
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
Inspired by true events, The Moment of Truth finds a Texan art student facing down life, death, love, and glory in the bullfighting rings of 1950s Mexico.
Texan art student Kathleen Boyd has been dreaming about becoming a matador since her beloved father took her to the bullfighting ring when she was just a child. Now a young woman, her disapproving fiancé and her practical-minded mother see her dream only as a foolish flight of fancy. Nevertheless, Kathleen relocates to Mexico and finds herself under the instruction of Fermin, a retired matador who is intent on asserting his dominance in their partnership. Though taking on a female apprentice is unheard of, Fermin sees Kathleen’s undeniable talent and promises that she’ll one day perform at the prestigious Plaza Mexico bullring.
While Kathleen struggles to perform alongside the unwelcoming men of Mexico’s bullfighting scene, she is befriended by Julio, better known as El Cabrito—The Kid. Much to Fermin’s displeasure, not only does Julio show Kathleen techniques that defy his strict instruction, but a forbidden romance quickly ignites between them.
As time passes, Kathleen’s confidence in her ability increases—though so too do her suspicions of Fermin’s intentions. She has become a sensation, selling out arenas as La Diosa Tejana, the Texan Goddess. But while Fermin gets rich, Kathleen’s pay remains pitiful and her instructor’s control over her life remains absolute. Will she always be a vehicle for another person’s success? Or will she finally face her own moment of truth and seize the success that she has worked toward for so long, in a world that has always belonged to men?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in post World War II Texas and Mexico, this second novel by McNicholl (A Son Called Gabriel) is inspired by the life of Patricia McCormick, the first professional female bullfighter in North America. Kathleen Boyd is a just a girl with a drawl from Texas, studying graphic art in a town a tram ride away from the bullring in Los Pinos, Mexico. She has dreamed of becoming a bullfighter since childhood. One morning, after she crosses the border and jumps into a bullring down in Garza to prove her talent, she decides to become the apprentice of the older matador Fermin Guzman, in the process leaving her fianc and disapproving mother in the States. Rising through the ranks, but suffering the slings and arrows of being a woman in what was still very much a man's world, Kathleen slowly comes into her own in Mexico, both as a bullfighter and as a woman. Nicknamed La Diosa Tejana, the Texas Goddess, by her fans, she falls in love with the doomed young matador El Cabrito, who teaches her to question the demands of her older mentor. The best parts of this book are the pages in which we are in the bullring. McNicholl vividly brings to life the bulls and the brute physicality of the art of bullfighting. It is less successful, based on the ultimate choices Kathleen makes, as a boundary-pushing treatise on the liberation of women in the 1950s.
