<![CDATA[The Feast of the Goat]]>

false <![CDATA[The Feast of the Goat]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170435073m/53969.jpg 53969 23 Mario Vargas Llosa, a former candidate for the presidency of Peru, is better placed than most novelists to write about the machinations of Latin American politics. In The Feast of the Goat he offers a vivid re-creation of the Dominican Republic during the final days of General Rafael Trujillo's insidious and evil regime. Told from several viewpoints, the book has three distinctive, alternating strands. There is Urania Cabral, the daughter of Trujillo's disgraced secretary of state, who has returned to Santo Domingo after more than 30 years. Now a successful New York lawyer, Urania has never forgiven her aging and paralyzed father, Agustín, for literally sacrificing her to the carnal despot in the hope of regaining his political post. Flipping back to May of 1961, there is a group of assassins, all equally scarred by Trujillo, waiting to gun the Generalissimo down. Finally there is an astonishing portrait of Trujillo--the Goat--and his grotesque coterie. Llosa depicts Trujillo as a villain of Shakespearean proportions. He is a preening, macho dandy who equates his own virility with the nation's health. An admirer of Hitler "not for his ideas but for the way he wore a uniform" (fittingly he equips his secret police force with a fleet of black Volkswagen Beetles), Trujillo even has his own Himler in Colonel Abbes Garcia, a vicious torturer with a predilection for the occult. As the novel edges toward Trujillo's inevitable murder, Urania's story gets a bit lost in the action; the remaining narratives however, are rarely short of mesmerizing. Trujillo's death unleashes a new order, but not the one expected by the conspirators. Enslaved by the soul of the dead chief, neither they nor the Trujillo family--who embark on a hideous spree of bloody reprisals--are able to fill the void. Llosa has them all skillfully outmaneuvered by the puppet-president Joaquín Belaguer, a former poet who is the very antithesis of the machismo Goat. Savage, touching, and bleakly funny, this compelling book gives an all too human face to one of Latin America's most destructive tyrants. --Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk 947074 2000 The Feast of the Goat total:1107|5:384|4:456|3:194|2:57|1:16| 1107 4456 1639 139 2 1 false false Tue Jan 20 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 06:58:57 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 07:24:41 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Oct 14 15:04:29 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 07:28:54 -0700 2008
What I found interesting:
- Descriptions of the Dominician Republic - a place I heard of but really knew nothing about
- The cult of personality aro...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sun Apr 01 08:56:51 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 01 08:56:51 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 true false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 29 12:34:08 -0700 2007 Thu May 03 06:16:17 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 03 17:11:42 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 17:13:15 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 12:58:23 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 13:23:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 06 06:38:06 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 06:48:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 02 03:00:05 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 03:00:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Apr 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 19:48:13 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 14:45:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Sep 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 14:29:11 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 15:06:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 17:59:58 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 18:09:45 -0700 2009
This is a novelization of the last days of the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic and the events leading up to his assassination. It focuses on the activities of three parties. One is Trujillo himself and h...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 22 09:58:27 -0800 2009 Sun May 31 17:55:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Thu Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jan 06 14:02:51 -0800 2009 Mon Apr 20 09:58:30 -0700 2009 The Feast of the Goat details the last days of the Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, and his impact on society in the Dominican Republic. Mario Vargas Llosa, the famed Peruvian novelist, takes three intersecting stories: a detailed examination of Trujillo’s last day; the stories of th...more...]]> 4 0 false true Sun Oct 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 08 18:47:11 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 18 08:52:32 -0700 2008
This is a ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Aug 14 02:58:44 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 04:58:35 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 08:03:41 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 09:14:59 -0700 2008
What I liked about this book was the intimate portrayals of some powerful political a...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Jan 29 07:41:54 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 10 15:45:55 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 12 10:19:02 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 07:24:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false true Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Sep 24 09:50:20 -0700 2007 Mon Feb 23 07:35:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu May 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 04 21:04:13 -0700 2007 Thu May 08 21:20:11 -0700 2008 But "The Feast of the Goat" is a political novel, set in the Dominican Republic at various times, but mostly during the last days of the reign of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, the "goat" in the title.
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