THE CAMPAIGN By Carlos Fuentes (Picador, $87) HOW preoccupied was Napoleon by the legendary Josephine during his conquests of various European countries? Or, to put it another way, how do the quixotic motivations of those involved in great moments of history, influence the outcome of these events? I have the feeling that this is one of the main themes underpinning Carlos Fuentes' ambitious trilogy covering Latin America's struggle for independence from its Spanish colonial masters. The Campaign is the first part of what promises to be a marvellously irreverent account of this turbulent period.
The unlikely hero is the young Argentinian revolutionary Balthasar Bustos, desperately searching for a way to make his special contribution to the struggle against the Spanish colonialists.
Nurtured in that well-known school of revolutionaries, the coffee house, he comes up with the madcap idea of snatching the baby of the wife of President of the Superior Court and replacing it by a baby belonging to one of her black servants.
The chubby, short-sighted Balthasar smuggles himself into the house, switches the babies, but before doing so, falls madly in love with the very beautiful Ofelia Salamanca, the Chilean wife of the mighty Spanish judge, the Marquis de Cabra.
In his rush to leave the palace with the baby, he believes he has ignited a fire which consumes the black infant as the entire premises go up in flames.
It does not take long to realise that this will be a rather complex tale with some rather unlikely twists and turns.
However the bizarre figure of Balthasar Bustos is really there to take the reader across the continent of Latin America as he searches for Ofelia Salamanca, along the way joining various insurgent groups battling against the Spanish.