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Loading... The Feast of the Goat: A Novel (original 2000; edition 2002)by Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman (Translator)
Work InformationThe Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa (2000)
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Historical fiction about the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina in the Dominican Republic. It utilizes three storylines, including flashbacks and flash-forwards, to tell the story of this oppressive regime and its aftermath. It opens in 1996, with Urania Cabral, daughter of a (fictional) former supporter of Trujillo. At age 49, she has returned after thirty-five years in the US. She eventually reveals the reason for her lengthy absence. The second storyline covers the last day of Trujillo’s life. It portrays the dictator and his devotees and provides the historic content of Trujillo’s power base. The third story involves the group of assassins awaiting arrival of Trujillo’s chauffeured car. It covers how they became disillusioned and what drove them to decide to kill “the Goat.” This book portrays abuse of power and the lingering psychological impact on the people who lived through it. Though the Cabral family is fictional, Trujillo and his assassins were real people, and the descriptions of events are based on what actually occurred. Their thoughts, of course, are fictionalized. It reflects the dangers of following the Cult of Personality. The book is well-written and well-crafted. The interwoven storylines inform each other, such that the reader gains a vivid picture of what life was like in the Dominican Republic under Trujillo. Be aware that the content includes gruesome descriptions of brutal violence, torture, and sexual abuse. 4.5 This is political science porn. Though not in the same sense of, say, House of Cards. This is not about complex machinations or smart people. This is about fear and ordinary people. One day you're a trusted intimate of the Generalíssimo. The next day he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed; suddenly you're no longer senator, your bank accounts are frozen, you're under investigation. You wonder what it is you've done. You worry you may get arrested. You worry about your family. You wonder if there is anything you can do to regain the man's favor. This is also violence porn. King Joffrey is a clumsy little bully apprentice compared to Trujillo. The violence is not gratuitous though. It's one thing to learn from Wikipedia that this many people were killed, that that many people were tortured, etc. It's another thing entirely to turn the victims of the regime into relatable characters and to make the reader care about them. And Vargas Llosa does that brilliantly here. Also, shout out to the narrators of the Audible version. They did an amazing job. It doesn't get five stars is because it could be shorter. After a certain point it feels like "enough, I got the picture, Trujillo was mean and people lived in fear." There was no need to tie every loose end.
Für diesen Roman ist es nur von nachrangiger Bedeutung, ob Fakten oder Imaginationen dominieren. Vargas Llosa, der 1990 in Peru bei den Präsidentenwahlen gegen Alberto Fujimori unterlag, hat (nach eigenen Angaben) zwar gründlich recherchiert, doch erst mittels seiner bildkräftigen Sprache und seiner scharf konturierten Personenbilder konnte dieses gleichermaßen beeindruckende wie beängstigende Gesellschaftsbild entstehen, das von einer "spirituelle[n] Knechtschaft" (so der Autor) geprägt sei. Belongs to Publisher SeriesGallimard, Folio (4021) Is contained inŒuvres romanesques I, II by Mario Vargas Llosa (indirect) Has as a reference guide/companionHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Haunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, forty-nine-year-old Urania Cabral returns to her native Dominican Republic--and finds herself reliving the events of l961, when the capital was still called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million. Rafael Trujillo, the depraved ailing dictator whom Dominicans call the Goat, controls his inner circle with a combination of violence and blackmail. In Trujillo's gaudy palace, treachery and cowardice have become a way of life. But Trujillo's grasp is slipping. There is a conspiracy against him, and a Machiavellian revolution already underway that will have bloody consequences of its own. In this 'masterpiece of Latin American and world literature, and one of the finest political novels ever written' (Bookforum), Mario Vargas Llosa recounts the end of a regime and the birth of a terrible democracy, giving voice to the historical Trujillo and the victims, both innocent and complicit, drawn into his deadly orbit. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)863.64Literature Spanish and Portuguese Spanish fiction 20th Century 1945-2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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It is difficult to read, yet fascinating. The author is able to bring you into the minds of the main players, both the heroes and the villains. The author observes that the dictator Trujillo (aka "the Goat") had created a perverse system, "one in which all Dominicans sooner or later took part as accomplices, a system which only exiles (not always) and the dead could escape." As accomplices Dominicans participated in spying, betrayal, assault human trafficking, horrendous torture, and murder..." the Goat had taken from people the sacred attribute given to them by God: their free will."
Urania's ability to confess the betrayal that almost destroyed her life, Balaguer's democratization of his country, and Imbert's survival and return to Dominican society were all accomplished with some difficult and sometimes extreme decisions. This restoration of their free will is also what ultimately gives the book hope. ( )