The Emperor's Babe : A Novel

Library Journal

[The Emperor's Babe] is Bridget Jones's Diary meets Austin Powers meets The Fall of the Roman Empire.

Publishers Weekly

Employing the same narrative verse style that served her so well in her debut, Lara, British writer Evaristo travels back in time to tell the story of Zuleika, a libidinous but frustrated Sudanese woman who comes of age in a Roman-conquered London in A.D. 211. Spotted at the age of 11 by rich Roman senator Lucius Aurelius Felix, "a man thrice my age and thrice my girth," she lands in the lap of luxury when a wedding quickly takes place. But Felix's lack of libido soon turns the marriage into a prison, and when he begins to travel, jazzy teenager Zuleika hits the social scene in the urban maze that is Londinium and receives some flattering attention from a visiting Roman emperor, Septimus Severus. The two begin a brief but torrid affair until Evaristo wraps up her thin plot by sending Severus off to war as Felix returns to find that the entire community knows about the affair. Plot problems aside, most of this is an excuse for Evaristo to stretch her poetic muscles as she creates a beautiful, passionate African-cum-Roman woman as seen through the imagination of a highly liberated and sexual 21st-century poet. Despite the occasional burst of purple verse, she succeeds admirably in bringing a difficult and treacherous conceit to fruition, liberally indulging in irreverent asides, vivid vernacular speech and clever puns. The generally high quality of the poetry overshadows the failure of the book to develop into a genuine, full-fledged novel. This is a vividly imagined albeit distinctly modern look at a woman's role in Roman times by a talented writer with a fertile mind and a playful spirit. (Apr. 29) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This quasi-historical novel, written in free verse, offers an irreverent, fun, and amusingly anachronistic portrait of Roman London circa C.E. 210. It is Bridget Jones's Diary meets Austin Powers meets The Fall of the Roman Empire. In swinging "Londinium," the chic Romans often don Armani togas and Gucci duds for their bacchanalian soir es. At the age of 11, Zuleika our free-spirited narrator, the daughter of a nouveau-riche immigrant African merchant is married off to an older, mostly absent Roman businessman looking for a trophy wife. While her husband is away, Zuleika (also called Zuky-dot, Zee, Za Za, etc.) manages to fill up her otherwise mundane existence by cavorting with old friends (including a cross-dressing nightclub owner), assembling her personal posse, mourning her lost youth, scheming against disrespectful servants, reading and writing poetry, and eventually having an affair with the Libyan-born Emperor Septimus Severus when he visits Londinium. The scene in which Zuleika attends a gladiatorial battle is not to be missed. British-born Evaristo's second novel (after Lara) is consistently amusing, clever, and inventive and even makes an indirect comment on present-day multicultural London. Recommended for all public and academic libraries. Roger A. Berger, Everett Community Coll., WA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Holy Po-Mo, Batman! How about a historical, multicultural, transgender novel-in verse, yet!-about a colony of third-century Africans living in London under the empire (the Roman empire, that is). There are some stories that just can't be told straight, and newcomer Evaristo doesn't bother trying. She lets herself go wild in this account of the fabulous life and celebrated adventures of Zuleika, a Sudanese girl ("Illa Bella Negreeta") whose parents brought her from Khartoum to London-er, make that Londinium-and married her off to a Roman nobleman before she had even come within spitting distance of puberty. Her husband Felix was an old man in his 30s, very rich, and hardly ever in town, and he saw to most of Zuleika's needs, installing her in a gigantic house with an army of servants to attend to her. The problem was that he attended to other matters himself, and left her completely on her own. So she became a club kid in short order, hanging out at the ultra-hip Mount Venus nightclub with all the trannies and fashionistas and even became tight with transvestite goddess Venus herself. Zuleika soon becomes a fixture of the downtown scene, getting her frocks from the best shops and trading adulterous gossips with her girlfriends. Eventually she is spotted at the theater by the Emperor Septimus Severus, who happens to be passing through his British colonies on a kind of goodwill tour, and the two are struck by a thunderbolt. True love at last! And Felix can hardly complain, even if he were of a mind to, since everybody has to stand aside to let the Emperor cut in. Unfortunately for Zuleika, however, the Emperor is a king as well as a lover, and a soldier as well as a king. And soldiers havea way of dying in battle. Truly crazy, lots of fun, and more than slightly perverse: this reads like an episode of Sex and the City written by Ovid.