Sinners
Any internet inquiry into Beatrice Cenci will tell you she was repeatedly raped by her father. Whether true or not, Sinners edges around this, outlining cruel mental and physical degradation perpetrated on Beatrice, while the possibility of rape smoulders angrily in the background. Beatrice is a young Roman noblewoman in late 1500s Italy. She has unwittingly become her father’s ‘favourite,’ partly due to the death of brothers in family feuds. Cruelty mixed with disarming endearments has hardened Beatrice over years of Francesco Cenci’s sociopathic tyranny. The latest death of another brother, seen as inviting more feudal retribution, moves Francesco to take his family from the Palazzo Cenci in Rome to La Rocca, a menacing, ravine-built citadel in the State of Naples.
Beatrice’s first-person, present-tense voice is unexpected and doesn’t quite provoke the mood in the beginning. At La Rocca, however, the story becomes darker and more horrific by the page. Francesco’s maltreatment of his family and sneaky connivances are a never-ending menace. Beatrice falls in love with Olimpio, one of Francesco’s creatures, but they have to meet without alerting Francesco or his vindictive henchmen. When she and her stepmother are locked up for months (three years historically), vengeance manifests into a physical presence, as does Beatrice’s ‘inner monster,’ which simmers, barely under control. The determination to end her father’s brutal reign, and free her family, keeps her on a single-minded road.
Understandably, legend surrounds the Cenci family, but Fremantle has found her way through the many myths to arrive at a viable narrative for the final period of Beatrice’s life, which in no way seeks to exonerate her of patricide. Starting with the horrific outcome of Olimpio’s actions, the author ramps up the pace of the final chapters, even though the outcome is unalterable. This real-life dark Gothic story needs no added tropes. Graphic, yes, but an excellent if disconcerting read.
