The Nolan: Prisoner of the Inquisition

A fascinating historical figure--the doomed Renaissance heretic Giordano Bruno, who preached the existence of life on other planets--is revived in an unconvincing fictional milieu by Yanow (The Door in the Wall). Steward to Robert Bellarmine, a cardinal and consulting inquisitor, narrator Pietro Guidotti is sent in 1597 on a picaresque mission through Europe to conduct interviews and get the dirt on the imprisoned Bruno. With contacts provided by Bellarmine, Guidotti meets such notables as the duc d'Epernon, Henry IV of France, John Florio, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth I, Bruno's denouncer Mocenigo and, finally, Bruno himself, who faces execution with Christian forbearance. While Yanow has created a believable character in the roguish Guidotti, Bruno eludes him: Yanow's caricatured pedant bears no interesting relation to the actual scholar. And, despite the ambitious breadth of Yanow's research, his many misspellings and misuses of common Italian and French words alone cast doubt on its depth, while his awkward, anachronistic dialogue (""We wops gotta help each other, I always say"") dispels any cinquecento ambience. (Apr.)