Jim’s Reviews > The Time of the Hero > Status Update

But if I didn't learn anything else at the Military School, I learned the importance of discipline. Without that, everything breaks down, everything falls to pieces. Why is our country the way it is? Lack of discipline. Lack of order. The only part of it that stays strong and healthy is the army, because of its structure, its organization.

Everything's done halfway in Peru, and that's why everything goes wrong. The soldiers we get are filthy, they're crawling with lice, and they're all thieves. But you can beat some civilization into them. After a year in the army, the only thing Indian about an Indian is his looks. But it's the opposite with the cadets, they go from bad to worse.

It was the last day of summer, and the sky over Lima, after burning like an ember for three months, was ash gray with clouds, as if this were the beginning of a long dark dream. They came from all parts of Peru. They had never seen each other before but they were all together now....