A brilliant political novel about the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, Vargas Llosa weaves drama and suspense about real events with such mastery and intensity. He constructs a vivid portrayal of the last days of the brutal regime from three points of view -- from the daughter of a disgraced former top Trujillo ally, from the conspirators and Trujillo's assassins, and from Trujillo himself. (The first thread is the weakest, verging on melodrama. The third one is the most effective, an insight into what goes on in an authoritarian leader's mind. He is both larger-than-life and very human, in this point of view.) Vargas Llosa depicts the rise of Trujillo, the abuse of power among Trujillo's family and cronies, the political intolerance, the human rights abuses, the relationship with the Church, the political machinations of the US and the CIA, the cult which developed around Trujillo's powerful persona, his assassination, and the power struggle that came right after which exposed the fragility of the institutions he created. The storylines are interspersed, and timelines go backwards and forwards, but rather than confuse, they elucidate and render pieces of the puzzle that the reader can fit into the bigger picture. Without being being preachy or subjective about the evils of dictatorship, Vargas Llosa delivers a punch on the subject. ( )

I decided not to finish this book. The subject is very interesting; the decline and fall of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. However, this book reads like a fictionalized history book. Earlier in the year I read "The War at the End of the World", which was definitely historical fiction, but definitely fell in the fiction category. I do not like the feeling that I have no idea what is true and what is fiction. There are enough history books that are fictionalized floating around out there! ( )

A middle aged expatriate lawyer returns to visit her dying father in The Dominican Republic which she left when a young teenager. The return brings back her painful memories of her abuse in the corrupt times of Trujillo. This is interwoven with a retelling of the time and events of the assassination and assassins of Trujillo . Well written but could have done with more of the woman's story and a lot less plotting, politics, blood and guts from the Trujillo period. The voice changed constantly without much signalling which was a bit of a challenge when trying to speed read the tedious bits (men sitting in cars brooding - yawn).
Decent overall ( )

This is a wonderful novel about the assassination of the Dominican Republic's leader, Rafael Trujillo in 1961, told from the point of view of Trujillo himself, as well as some of the assassins and other people involved in the plot. It covers the weeks leading up to the assassination, and the aftermath as Trujillo's son leads the hunt to track down his father's killers, while behind the scene the Dominican president and the Americans are scheming to get rid of the Trujillo family and bring democracy to the country.

It didn't really need the framing story of the fictional Urania Cabral, who left the island aged fourteen and never spoke to her family again, before returning thirty-five years later to confront her demons.

I didn't really know anything about the Trujillo era, as it ended before I was born, and although I've read "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents" which is about a family who had to leave the Dominican Republic for political reasons, the story didn't go into detail. ( )

One of my book groups is reading In the Time of the Butterflies. Someone on LT recommended this book as a companion read because it also deals with the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. The story is set in 1961, just before Trujillo was as assassinated.

This is a good book that really gives a sense of the scope, damage and horror of living under a dictatorship. It is also unfortunately a tough read. Some of it may be due to the fact that it is a translation, but some is due to structural problems with the story, and perhaps the approach the author took to the material.

The author, while writing fiction, also seems to want to write a history of the time. The 2 impulses often clash, when the story becomes wooden and is overwhelmed by the complete-ist requirements of history. In one thread in particular you end up with about 1/4 page of names of people who were at a meeting, but none of them are characters or play a part in the fictional story.

Another issue for non-Spanish speakers, and those not familiar with the culture is the use of full names, including the second last name. They often seem to go on forever, and make it hard to keep the characters straight.

The book is divided into 3 threads, to tell different aspects of the event, its aftermath and the way it impacted the lives of many people. Vargas tries to show how everybody was touched by the filth : those who were damaged/killed/maimed, their friends, their relatives, those who had to keep silent in the face of such monstrosity, and those who had to actively collaborate to keep them and their families alive.

The first thread is set in the modern day and is of a middle aged woman, Urania, who has been away from the DR and estranged from her family for 35 years. She is the daughter of one of Trujillo's closest advisers. Her father betrayed her when she was 14, and she has never completely recovered. He meanwhile, survived Trujillo, and the aftermath of the assassination, only to succumb to a stroke that left him a prisoner in his frozen and uncommunicative body.

Urania fills the part of the damaged survivor, and she is able to look back and speak about life in the past. She is able to contrast her early innocence and naivete about the truth of the dictatorship, and then after her event, she speaks about the ability to see the lies and the corrosive action of the fear, the collaboration, and the violence.

Unfortunately she is not done well as a real person, or an interesting character. We never really learn what motivates her, and her ending seems artificial. She never becomes more than a cardboard avatar.

The best thread is the one that belongs to Trujillo. We get to see what motivates him, and how he views his actions. Of course this is not based in truth, but it is done so well that it is totally believable. It is also completely scary to see how easy it is to rationalize and to ignore the harm one does. He is not some evil mindless cartoon monster, but a real person who chooses to be evil, and lie to himself about his actions.

The weakest thread is the one that seems to hold everyone else. It starts out with four of the assassins, but after the event, it seems to belong to any and all. It is the weakest in terms of story coherence. We meet four men and read about them and their lives and families, and then they are either gone or become only occasional entries. Other characters take their place, and we also learn about their lives and families, but its like a revolving door. Very interesting, but hard to keep track of who is who, what they do, and what their position is regarding Trujillo.

After the assassination the story occasionally has the killers, but focuses more on the Trujillistas left and their attempts to keep things calm to prevent a US invasion, and to gain power, and crush their opponents.

It is also through this thread that you get a sense of the breadth and depth of the evil of regime. Almost everyone has had a run in the Trujillo, and/or the secret police. Many have lost friends and family members, and live in fear of the same thing happening to them. It serves the purpose of the history approach to the book, at the expense of the story element.

Even with all its issues, it is still an amazing read, and worth the effort. ( )