Publication
Punto De Lectura (2001), 576 p.
Original publication date
2000
Collections
Subjects
Awards
The Economist Best Books (2000.33)
Nobel Prize in Literature (2010)
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (Shortlist — 2003)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2001)
Description
In The Feast of the Goat, 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. 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. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member clfisha
“The Chief cut the Gordian knot: “Enough!” Great ills demand great remedies! He not only justified the massacre of Haitians in 1937; he considered it a great accomplishment of the regime. Didn’t he save the Republic from being prostituted a second time by that marauding neighbour? What do
Beautifully written the story immerses you in the last days of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, Dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1969, when the Catholic Church and USA have turned their back on him and assassination plots grow thick. This is not a story to be read in snatches, take a deep breath and dive in as characters and time lines are expertly, thickly, layered to create one of the best, most exciting historical fictions books I have read in a long while.
The Dominican setting comes fully alive in Llosa's hands as do the multitude of characters. For he loves to get into the characters heads, to show you what they are thinking and where they have come from. This deepness creates a gripping and horrifying tale of the impact of dictatorship, of a endemic misogynistic culture, of the cruelty of international politics, that some things can never be forgiven.
The cast we follow is deftly chosen; Trujillo himself on his last day, the assassins waiting on a lonely road, an odious cabinet minster or two. He balances these characters, adding extra dimension to the tale by also following X who is returning to the Dominican Republic many years after these events, returning after the traumatic events forced her to flee. If it seems overwhelming it isn’t they all flow into just 3 story arch’s of Trujillo, of the murder and of the present. But Llosa doesn't baby the audience, you need to be awake for this, to do it justice. Llosa has this great literary trick used towards the end when a reminisces will segue present into past without breaking sweat, hammering home the impact to sublime effect.
I like it so much it’s hard to see where others may dislike it, the darkness could be a problem, the seeming complexity or the simplification of history (note I don’t know how accurate it is) or maybe they feel some characters to be superfluous. Still it’s worth a go and I highly recommend it, you don’t need to know the history (although nicknames can be confusing), this is a book to experience, to chew on and even to love.
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five, ten, twenty thousand Haitians matter when it’s a question of saving an entire people?”Beautifully written the story immerses you in the last days of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, Dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1969, when the Catholic Church and USA have turned their back on him and assassination plots grow thick. This is not a story to be read in snatches, take a deep breath and dive in as characters and time lines are expertly, thickly, layered to create one of the best, most exciting historical fictions books I have read in a long while.
The Dominican setting comes fully alive in Llosa's hands as do the multitude of characters. For he loves to get into the characters heads, to show you what they are thinking and where they have come from. This deepness creates a gripping and horrifying tale of the impact of dictatorship, of a endemic misogynistic culture, of the cruelty of international politics, that some things can never be forgiven.
The cast we follow is deftly chosen; Trujillo himself on his last day, the assassins waiting on a lonely road, an odious cabinet minster or two. He balances these characters, adding extra dimension to the tale by also following X who is returning to the Dominican Republic many years after these events, returning after the traumatic events forced her to flee. If it seems overwhelming it isn’t they all flow into just 3 story arch’s of Trujillo, of the murder and of the present. But Llosa doesn't baby the audience, you need to be awake for this, to do it justice. Llosa has this great literary trick used towards the end when a reminisces will segue present into past without breaking sweat, hammering home the impact to sublime effect.
I like it so much it’s hard to see where others may dislike it, the darkness could be a problem, the seeming complexity or the simplification of history (note I don’t know how accurate it is) or maybe they feel some characters to be superfluous. Still it’s worth a go and I highly recommend it, you don’t need to know the history (although nicknames can be confusing), this is a book to experience, to chew on and even to love.
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LibraryThing member RickHarsch
Here's the blurb on the cover of Mario Vargas Llosa's The Feast of the Goat: 'The Feast of the Goat' will stand out as the great emblematic novel of Latin America's twentieth century and deprives One Hundred Years of Solitude of that title.'--Times Literary Supplement.
And there went the fifth star.
Now I am asked to admire the virtuosity of The Feast of the Goat. I don't. I find it's plot, centered around the assassination of The Dominican Republic's dictator Trujillo in 1961, irresistible, and the blending of narratives competent, five steps back from Conversation in the Cathedral, but competent. Most importantly, I find the book to be a fairly exhaustive portrayal of a dictatorship and the way it permeates a society, destroying the will of the people, the very yearning for independent thought and action, the irreparable damage to an entire nation's psyches and emotional lives. This is the last serious work of a great novelist, so it is not surprising that the portrayal of the dictator and his lackeys is fine, that the portrayal of the assassins is compelling, and even that he pulls off the most important task he set himself, making powerful and real the contemporary character whose return to the Dominican after a 35 year absence generates the stories in the book.
Where Llosa failed, he did not attempt, so it would be unfair to charge the book with that failure, but it does reduce the importance of the book. The book has every opportunity to portray the lives of the poor, the lumpenproles--particularly those hired by the Dominican secret service to terrify the populace--yet Llosa set his standards somewhat lower, and rather than a great book that would have rivalled his two best he has written a book worth reading mostly for its political historical aspect. I recommend the book, but not the cover.
And there went the fifth star.
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Llosa and Garcia Marquez were notable literary antagonists, Marquez being an egalitarian, Llosa a classical neo-liberal type. Their feud made uncomfortable reading for those who had read Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral, which begins with the question, more or less: At what precise moment did Peru fuck itself up. It's a masterpiece of literary rule violations, intertwining numerous conversations, one which consists of but a few exchanges that sometimes require the reader to recall the previous statement after nearly 100 pages--and yet Llosa pulled it off. The book is one that teaches you how to read it. And it's a compelling read as well, requiring little more than an interest in language to gain and maintain access. If any book by Llosa is on a par with 100 Year, it's Conversation in the Cathedral. And not so long after that, Llosa hatched The War of the End of the World, based on a bizarre yet emblematic rebellion and reprisal toward the end of the 19th century that gave rise to what is considered Brazil's national epic, 'Os Sertoes', or The Backlands, by Euclides da Cunha. A work of elastic realism, the book is a stunning re-creation of the strange menagerie at the center of the rebellion.Now I am asked to admire the virtuosity of The Feast of the Goat. I don't. I find it's plot, centered around the assassination of The Dominican Republic's dictator Trujillo in 1961, irresistible, and the blending of narratives competent, five steps back from Conversation in the Cathedral, but competent. Most importantly, I find the book to be a fairly exhaustive portrayal of a dictatorship and the way it permeates a society, destroying the will of the people, the very yearning for independent thought and action, the irreparable damage to an entire nation's psyches and emotional lives. This is the last serious work of a great novelist, so it is not surprising that the portrayal of the dictator and his lackeys is fine, that the portrayal of the assassins is compelling, and even that he pulls off the most important task he set himself, making powerful and real the contemporary character whose return to the Dominican after a 35 year absence generates the stories in the book.
Where Llosa failed, he did not attempt, so it would be unfair to charge the book with that failure, but it does reduce the importance of the book. The book has every opportunity to portray the lives of the poor, the lumpenproles--particularly those hired by the Dominican secret service to terrify the populace--yet Llosa set his standards somewhat lower, and rather than a great book that would have rivalled his two best he has written a book worth reading mostly for its political historical aspect. I recommend the book, but not the cover.
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LibraryThing member jasonlf
The Feast of the Goat is an enormously powerful, brutal and moving historical novel about the prologue and aftermath to Trujillo’s assassination in the Dominican Republic in 1961 (or his execution, as it comes to be known). It is a searing portrait of a Latin American strongman who reshapes his
Much of the book is told in chapters that alternate between three perspectives: Trujillo himself, a group of people waiting to kill him, and a woman who returns to the Dominican Republic for the first time since fleeing it in 1961. In the process the third person narrative is told from the perspective of over a dozen people, all of whose lives revolve around Trujillo in different ways, including his puppet President, his top ministers and generals, lower-level soldiers plotting to kill him, his housekeeper, and the women he rapes.
Most of the first half of the book takes place on the day of the assassination itself, alternating between a description of Trujillo’s day (which starts at 4am) and his assassins/killers/executions (depending on your perspective) waiting for his car to pass by. Vargas Llosa uses flashbacks to illuminate a wider canvas. This part is really excellent and although the outcome is foreordained, has a tiny bit of the tempo of a thriller.
More amazing is the second half which mostly takes place in the months following the Trujillo’s killing as the secret police try to round up the killers. Vargas Llosa describes in meticulous detail how each of them is killed, many in public shootouts, some following months of brutal torture in prison, and the last few shot for sport the night before Trujillo’s family finally fleas. What makes this part of the book even better than the first half is first that it does not conform to a standard plot, second the unflinching depiction of Bruegelian brutality, and finally the pointlessness of it all because Trujillo is dead and his family clearly will not survive in the Dominican Republic for long. So it is all just personal revenge being carried out on a large scale in a nation.
Overlaying all of this, opening and closing the novel, is the story of Urania Cabral, a woman who returns after fleeing the country as a fourteen year old in 1961. She is there to tell her ailing father how much she hates him. The reason is easy to guess not long into the novel as we learn Trujillo’s habit of raping women, many of them wives and daughters of the people closest to him. But this does not diminish the power of the eventual revelation.
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entire society around his own whims and megalomania and insecurity. It has a certain amount in common with Tolstoy’s method in War & Peace, only it doesn’t have a whole lot of peace. This had been on my mental “to read” list since it came out a decade ago, but it took the Mario Vargas Llosa winning the Nobel Prize for me to finally get around to it. And it was one of the best books I’ve read in many years.Much of the book is told in chapters that alternate between three perspectives: Trujillo himself, a group of people waiting to kill him, and a woman who returns to the Dominican Republic for the first time since fleeing it in 1961. In the process the third person narrative is told from the perspective of over a dozen people, all of whose lives revolve around Trujillo in different ways, including his puppet President, his top ministers and generals, lower-level soldiers plotting to kill him, his housekeeper, and the women he rapes.
Most of the first half of the book takes place on the day of the assassination itself, alternating between a description of Trujillo’s day (which starts at 4am) and his assassins/killers/executions (depending on your perspective) waiting for his car to pass by. Vargas Llosa uses flashbacks to illuminate a wider canvas. This part is really excellent and although the outcome is foreordained, has a tiny bit of the tempo of a thriller.
More amazing is the second half which mostly takes place in the months following the Trujillo’s killing as the secret police try to round up the killers. Vargas Llosa describes in meticulous detail how each of them is killed, many in public shootouts, some following months of brutal torture in prison, and the last few shot for sport the night before Trujillo’s family finally fleas. What makes this part of the book even better than the first half is first that it does not conform to a standard plot, second the unflinching depiction of Bruegelian brutality, and finally the pointlessness of it all because Trujillo is dead and his family clearly will not survive in the Dominican Republic for long. So it is all just personal revenge being carried out on a large scale in a nation.
Overlaying all of this, opening and closing the novel, is the story of Urania Cabral, a woman who returns after fleeing the country as a fourteen year old in 1961. She is there to tell her ailing father how much she hates him. The reason is easy to guess not long into the novel as we learn Trujillo’s habit of raping women, many of them wives and daughters of the people closest to him. But this does not diminish the power of the eventual revelation.
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LibraryThing member browner56
Brutal. Absolutely brutal. That is really the only way to describe the events portrayed in ‘The Feast of the Goat’, a work of historical fiction that records the turbulent end of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. In graphic and meticulous detail, Vargas Llosa does an
In what turns out to be an effective literary device, the story is told from three perspectives and two different time frames in alternating chapters. Urania Cabral, a successful lawyer visiting her homeland for the first time after living in the United States for 35 years, has returned to confront her father and the ghosts of the past that she buried when she left the island just weeks before Trujillo’s assassination. The other two narratives take place in 1961 and focus on the Generalissimo as he progresses through the day on which he is killed as well as several of the “executioners” involved in the murder plot.
While the tale of Urania and her father, Senator Augustin Cabral, is pure fiction (i.e., they did not really exist), those centered on Trujillo, his sadistic comrades, and his assassins are embellished accounts based on factual occurrences. In fact, the historical portions of the novel work far better than the parts set in the modern day; in tone and substance, Urania’s story seemed a little disjoint from the other accounts and was almost a distraction. Regardless, ‘The Feast of the Goat’ is a powerful meditation on how absolute power truly does corrupt absolutely, irrespective of whether the original intentions were noble and just (and sanctioned by both the Church and the U.S. government). With few heroes and very little hope, this is a book that was, at times, very difficult to read. Nevertheless, it is also an important work that deserves all of the acclaim it has received.
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absolutely masterful job of weaving the history of the 31-year reign of terror and social progress that marked Rafael Trujillo’s stranglehold on the country alongside the riveting tension associated with his last several hours on earth. This is grim and gritty writing that never shies away from chronicling every bit of the murder, torture, dismemberment, sexual violation, and humiliation that were “The Goat’s” primary means of subjugating the population.In what turns out to be an effective literary device, the story is told from three perspectives and two different time frames in alternating chapters. Urania Cabral, a successful lawyer visiting her homeland for the first time after living in the United States for 35 years, has returned to confront her father and the ghosts of the past that she buried when she left the island just weeks before Trujillo’s assassination. The other two narratives take place in 1961 and focus on the Generalissimo as he progresses through the day on which he is killed as well as several of the “executioners” involved in the murder plot.
While the tale of Urania and her father, Senator Augustin Cabral, is pure fiction (i.e., they did not really exist), those centered on Trujillo, his sadistic comrades, and his assassins are embellished accounts based on factual occurrences. In fact, the historical portions of the novel work far better than the parts set in the modern day; in tone and substance, Urania’s story seemed a little disjoint from the other accounts and was almost a distraction. Regardless, ‘The Feast of the Goat’ is a powerful meditation on how absolute power truly does corrupt absolutely, irrespective of whether the original intentions were noble and just (and sanctioned by both the Church and the U.S. government). With few heroes and very little hope, this is a book that was, at times, very difficult to read. Nevertheless, it is also an important work that deserves all of the acclaim it has received.
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LibraryThing member gbill
As Bob Dylan once sang, “Democracy don’t rule the world.” This is the story of Rafael Trujillo, the brutal dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961, with the fictional element of the Cabral family added in, a family which was torn apart by the events of 1961 prior to
Trujillo was one of most ‘successful’ of the many dictators in Latin America, ruling with an iron hand, fending off threats from the communists, America, the Catholic Church, and Haiti, and all while growing rich and having anything he wanted, including the wives of the sycophants around him, and young virgins, even late in life, at the age of 70. It’s an obvious example of absolute power corrupting absolutely. Trujillo has his enemies tortured and killed, massacres tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants, and insists upon being worshipped by his people. The sexual abuses are an activity picked up by his degenerate sons, reminiscent of Saddam Hussein and his sons.
The novel made me thank my lucky stars I was born into a far better situation, and it’s an interesting perspective, as the United States and JFK are viewed in passing, a threat to this little world, and yet distant.
The novel may also cause you to ask yourself difficult questions. To what lengths would you go to embrace a man in power, if he was bringing order and some degree of prosperity to your country? Would you try to stand up to him, knowing that you would be risking not only yourself but your family – your parents, your spouse, your children, all of them – to imprisonment, torture, and horrifying deaths? What moral compromises would you make to survive, and how far would you take those, if they meant subjecting an innocent loved one to horrors? If you were part of a plot that required perfect execution, would you hesitate at the critical moment, or would you be brave and resolute throughout? Would you harbor a stranger who was a fugitive, if you knew that should he be discovered in your house, it would be looted, burned to the ground, and the only way you could consider yourself lucky is if your death came quickly?
As in any situation, there is a mix of reactions from the characters involved, some admirable, some abominable. The human condition.
Vargas Llosa weaves the story together masterfully, alternating between perspectives and between past and present. Despite all of its revolting events, the novel is one of endurance, both for Urania, and for the country, which heals under an intelligent but unlikely leader in Joaquin Balaguer, who navigates through the chaos which ensued after the assassination with a deft hand. For that’s what we must do: be brave, fight the good fight, and endure.
Quotes:
On books, loved this one, quoting Rabindranath Tagore:
“An open book is a mind that speaks; closed, a friend who waits; forgotten, a soul that forgives; destroyed, a heart that weeps.”
On killing:
“’How did Your Excellency feel when you gave the order to eliminate thousands of illegal Haitians?’
‘Ask your former President Truman how he felt when he gave the order to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then you’ll know what I felt that night in Dajabon.’”
On “prayer”, so blatantly sacrilegious, and loved the ending to this:
“’Dear God, do this for me. Tonight I need to fuck Yolanda Esterel right. So I can know I’m not dead. Not an old man. And can go on doing your work for you, moving this damn country of assholes forward. I don’t care about the priests, the gringos, the conspirators, the exiles. I can clear away all that shit myself. But I need your help to fuck that girl. Don’t be a miser, don’t be stingy. Give me your help, give it to me.’ He sighed, with the disagreeable suspicion that the one he was pleading with, if he existed, must be observing him in amusement from the dark blue backdrop where the first stars had begun to appear.”
On the outer shell:
“Urania! What if after all these years you discover that behind your determined, disciplined mind, impervious to discouragement, behind the fortress admired and envied by others, you have a tender, timid, wounded, sentimental heart?”
And this one, on being damaged:
“Are you an iceberg, Urania? Only with men. And not with all of them. With those whose glances, movements, gestures, tones of voice announce a danger. When you can read, in their minds or instincts, the intention to court you, to make advances. With them, yes, you do make them feel the arctic cold that you know how to project around you, like the stink skunks use to frighten away an enemy. A technique you handle with the mastery you’ve brought to every goal you set for yourself: studies, work, an independent life. ‘Everything except being happy.’ Would she have been happy if, applying her will, her discipline, she had eventually overcome the unconquerable revulsion and disgust caused by men who desired her? You could have gone into therapy, seen a psychologist, an analyst. They had a remedy for everything, even finding men repugnant. But you never wanted to be cured. On the contrary, you don’t consider it a disease but a character trait, like your intelligence, your solitude, your passion for doing good work.”
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Trujillo’s assassination. Urania Cabral, who was 14 at the time and left the country after being traumatized, has returned 35 years later for the first time to see her family and to confront her demons. Trujillo was one of most ‘successful’ of the many dictators in Latin America, ruling with an iron hand, fending off threats from the communists, America, the Catholic Church, and Haiti, and all while growing rich and having anything he wanted, including the wives of the sycophants around him, and young virgins, even late in life, at the age of 70. It’s an obvious example of absolute power corrupting absolutely. Trujillo has his enemies tortured and killed, massacres tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants, and insists upon being worshipped by his people. The sexual abuses are an activity picked up by his degenerate sons, reminiscent of Saddam Hussein and his sons.
The novel made me thank my lucky stars I was born into a far better situation, and it’s an interesting perspective, as the United States and JFK are viewed in passing, a threat to this little world, and yet distant.
The novel may also cause you to ask yourself difficult questions. To what lengths would you go to embrace a man in power, if he was bringing order and some degree of prosperity to your country? Would you try to stand up to him, knowing that you would be risking not only yourself but your family – your parents, your spouse, your children, all of them – to imprisonment, torture, and horrifying deaths? What moral compromises would you make to survive, and how far would you take those, if they meant subjecting an innocent loved one to horrors? If you were part of a plot that required perfect execution, would you hesitate at the critical moment, or would you be brave and resolute throughout? Would you harbor a stranger who was a fugitive, if you knew that should he be discovered in your house, it would be looted, burned to the ground, and the only way you could consider yourself lucky is if your death came quickly?
As in any situation, there is a mix of reactions from the characters involved, some admirable, some abominable. The human condition.
Vargas Llosa weaves the story together masterfully, alternating between perspectives and between past and present. Despite all of its revolting events, the novel is one of endurance, both for Urania, and for the country, which heals under an intelligent but unlikely leader in Joaquin Balaguer, who navigates through the chaos which ensued after the assassination with a deft hand. For that’s what we must do: be brave, fight the good fight, and endure.
Quotes:
On books, loved this one, quoting Rabindranath Tagore:
“An open book is a mind that speaks; closed, a friend who waits; forgotten, a soul that forgives; destroyed, a heart that weeps.”
On killing:
“’How did Your Excellency feel when you gave the order to eliminate thousands of illegal Haitians?’
‘Ask your former President Truman how he felt when he gave the order to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then you’ll know what I felt that night in Dajabon.’”
On “prayer”, so blatantly sacrilegious, and loved the ending to this:
“’Dear God, do this for me. Tonight I need to fuck Yolanda Esterel right. So I can know I’m not dead. Not an old man. And can go on doing your work for you, moving this damn country of assholes forward. I don’t care about the priests, the gringos, the conspirators, the exiles. I can clear away all that shit myself. But I need your help to fuck that girl. Don’t be a miser, don’t be stingy. Give me your help, give it to me.’ He sighed, with the disagreeable suspicion that the one he was pleading with, if he existed, must be observing him in amusement from the dark blue backdrop where the first stars had begun to appear.”
On the outer shell:
“Urania! What if after all these years you discover that behind your determined, disciplined mind, impervious to discouragement, behind the fortress admired and envied by others, you have a tender, timid, wounded, sentimental heart?”
And this one, on being damaged:
“Are you an iceberg, Urania? Only with men. And not with all of them. With those whose glances, movements, gestures, tones of voice announce a danger. When you can read, in their minds or instincts, the intention to court you, to make advances. With them, yes, you do make them feel the arctic cold that you know how to project around you, like the stink skunks use to frighten away an enemy. A technique you handle with the mastery you’ve brought to every goal you set for yourself: studies, work, an independent life. ‘Everything except being happy.’ Would she have been happy if, applying her will, her discipline, she had eventually overcome the unconquerable revulsion and disgust caused by men who desired her? You could have gone into therapy, seen a psychologist, an analyst. They had a remedy for everything, even finding men repugnant. But you never wanted to be cured. On the contrary, you don’t consider it a disease but a character trait, like your intelligence, your solitude, your passion for doing good work.”
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LibraryThing member lriley
South American writers are famous for thier 'dictator' novels. South America has also been famous for its dictators. The very famous Peruvian writer Vargas Llosa here chronicles the last days of the infamous Dominican Republic's Trujillo regime. The events leading up to his assassination by a group
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of intellectuals, and military men and government bureaucrats most of whom pay with their own lives and many of whom are tortured very cruelly in order that the remnants of Trujillo's regime can find whatever information they need to hunt down the remaining few who have managed to hide out. The story is told according to a timeline of events and though I can't speak definitively to how true Mr. Vargas Llosa keeps to this timeline he does write with his usual elegance and in a compelling manner. It is well worth checking out. Show Less
LibraryThing member DRFP
Regardless of what parts of this book are true this is an excellent novel. It's takes some time to get into - the conspirators sitting in their cars spend the first half of the book setting the scene before any action happens their end. A flurry of names and characters whiz by and it's tough
However, slow as the novel starts it imperceptibly sucks you in. By the time the action starts and the reprisals begin you feel all manner of emotions for the various characters who are so steadily built up throughout the story. Llosa's descriptions of the torture scenes are some of the most horrific stuff I've read (even if it may not be true you believe it's what could have happened). Similarly, the light at the end of the tunnel (so to speak, while I try and avoid any potential spoilers) is very uplifting and quite moving.
I suppose my only minor criticism of the novel is that the Uranita's storyline, which felt so important to begin with, started to seem increasingly inconsequential as the greater events unfolded. If the assassination storyline is the "macro" level of events, then I realise the importance of this, the "micro" level. But the conspirators have their own detailed backstories and tragedies and they don't take up nearly as much space. Uranita's storyline isn't bad at all, it's quite affecting at times, but the way it's strung out feels very deliberate in a way the gradual pace of the assassination plot never did.
That's a small criticism though as I was thoroughly sucked into this novel despite my lack of knowledge on the subject of Trujillo and the Dominican Republic. Roll with the slow start and you'll be richly rewarded.
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keeping track of them (or, not being familiar with the country / region, whether these individuals should be well known).However, slow as the novel starts it imperceptibly sucks you in. By the time the action starts and the reprisals begin you feel all manner of emotions for the various characters who are so steadily built up throughout the story. Llosa's descriptions of the torture scenes are some of the most horrific stuff I've read (even if it may not be true you believe it's what could have happened). Similarly, the light at the end of the tunnel (so to speak, while I try and avoid any potential spoilers) is very uplifting and quite moving.
I suppose my only minor criticism of the novel is that the Uranita's storyline, which felt so important to begin with, started to seem increasingly inconsequential as the greater events unfolded. If the assassination storyline is the "macro" level of events, then I realise the importance of this, the "micro" level. But the conspirators have their own detailed backstories and tragedies and they don't take up nearly as much space. Uranita's storyline isn't bad at all, it's quite affecting at times, but the way it's strung out feels very deliberate in a way the gradual pace of the assassination plot never did.
That's a small criticism though as I was thoroughly sucked into this novel despite my lack of knowledge on the subject of Trujillo and the Dominican Republic. Roll with the slow start and you'll be richly rewarded.
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LibraryThing member FicusFan
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
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.
This is a good book that really
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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.
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LibraryThing member deebee1
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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rocky_Wing
intense, very dark, crass, brutal in it's characters, plot, and action. there is little or no hope for humanity in this book until we reach the very end. a tiny slice of possible light. in other words, a completely perfect book.
LibraryThing member isabelx
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
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.
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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.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
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
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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! Show Less
LibraryThing member sinaloa237
Absolutely brilliant!
The story of the dictator Trujillo from several points of view, each of which giving a specific enlightment on the life of the Generalisimo and dictatorial leader of the Dominican Republic during 30 years.
Vargas Llosa back at his best.
The story of the dictator Trujillo from several points of view, each of which giving a specific enlightment on the life of the Generalisimo and dictatorial leader of the Dominican Republic during 30 years.
Vargas Llosa back at his best.
LibraryThing member JCO123
Exellent book - well written, keeps you up late, you learn stuff, etc.
LibraryThing member FPdC
One of the great works of the famous peruvian writer, this book immerses the reader in the grim world of the Dominican Republic under Trujillo's thirty years long regime. The structure of the novel is also wonderfully appealing: except for a few vertiginous chapters near the end, the action takes
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part in just two days: the day Trujillo's was murdered, in 1961, and one anonymous day almost forty years latter. By following the lifes and thoughts of the dictator and of the conspirators back in that 1961 day, and that of Urania, a forty nine year old women daugther of a member of Trujillo's entourage returning to Santo Domingo to settle scores with her father and her life, the reader is toured around the public history and the inner workings of a ruthless dictatorship with a mastery difficult to surpass. Show Less
LibraryThing member jmoncton
In The Feast of the Goat, Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature describes the brutal reign and fall of Domican dictator Rafael Trujillo (aka the Goat) through three different perspectives. The first is Urania Cabral, a successful American lawyer, who left the Domican
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Republic when she was 14. She returns 40 years later to see her father, who had been a member of Trujillo's corrupt government. The 2 other points of view are through Trujillo himself, at the end of his reign, and a group of American-backed revolutionaries who have decided to free their country by assassinating the Goat. The story is fast-paced and mesmerizing and I found seeing the history of this country through different people's eyes fascinating. Excellent book. Show Less
LibraryThing member mlbelize
I didn't exactly enjoy reading this book. I am not into enjoying reading about the suffering of others, the total subjugation of a nation, the corruption of their souls and the torture of their bodies. I learned many things from this book that I wasn't aware of, some history of the Dominican
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Republic and what is known as the Trujillo era. So while I didn't "enjoy" the book, it was hard to put down, I had to continue, to keep reading and I'm glad that I did. This book is not light reading, but definitely worth your time and attention. Show Less
LibraryThing member gbelik
This is the story of Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic and the conspiracy to murder him and change the government. A parallel and personal story is that of Urania, the daughter of a disgraced Trujillo government official. What a compelling story and so well told. Though Vargas Llosa jumps
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around in time with abandon and with no apparent breaks in the text, he manages to keep me unconfused. The story of Urania serves to personalize the destructive and long-term this evil regime had upon the Dominican Republic. I did feel that I came to know Trujillo and his cronies better than I knew the opposition players; though each had his own story, I wasn't always clear on their individuality. What an exciting way to learn the story of this country! Show Less
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
An excellent novel, another brilliant book by Llosa. Three storylines, brilliantly researched depiction of a living hell - a mad dictatorship.
LibraryThing member John
This is a brilliant book. Set in the Dominican Republic around the assassination of Trujillo, the brutal dictator who ruled and terrorized the DR, 1930-1961. The story of the assassination is well-known. Llosa builds the tension by interspersing the viewpoints of the assassins who wait on the
It is a wide cast of characters, but the integration of their representative roles in the operation of the regime is seamless, as are the themes that Llosa explores, never didactically, but in consideration of complex relationships and even more complex psychologies. This novel is insightful in its touching upon the sociology and mass psychology of repression; the individual psychology of persons caught up in the corruption of power and influence; the fear and terror and tension of living under such a regime; the lives of those who profit from such a regime, ranging from sadistic murderers to the more complex psychologies of intellectuals who are clear-eyed opportunists, or who spin dense webs of self-deceit; how it is almost impossible to maintain any moral stance once one’s soul is sold to the system that is insidious in how it corrupts and co-opts people at all levels; the much deeper moral question of risking the lives of countless innocent people by your own action, however “justified” that action may seem; the long-term effects of such a system on society and the scars, physical and psychological that individuals carry; the sheer courage and commitment required to oppose such a regime when the penalties, if discovered, make one pray and plead for a quick death that is seldom granted.
Llosa also explores, in the aftermath of the assassination, how no course of events, even seminal events, is pre-ordained but is determined by the actions of individuals. The assassins had acquired the support of General Roman, the Head of the Armed Forces who was to play a key role in mobilizing the military and arresting the key players in the Trujillo government as soon as he knew Trujillo was dead. But he was indecisive, he wasted precious time, though he “new with certainty what he ought to do and say at that moment, he didn’t do that either”. The tension is palpable and you can only feel anguish as the opportunities ineluctably slip away. The regime’s players were able to regroup and take command and for General Roman, the result was four months of incessant, hideous torture.
Trujillo was a monster. Under his rule there were improvements in the economy, public finances, and general well-being of the people, but it was accompanied, and buttressed, by torture, murder, corruption, theft of government revenues in the hundreds of millions. Trujillo, aka the Chief, the Maximum Leader, the Benefactor, the Father of the New Nation, Generalissimo, the Restorer of Financial Independence, ruled through terror and whimsy and constantly setting factions or individuals against each other, grinding people down to the point where prominent men would hide their wives and daughters lest they catch his lecherous eye and he would want to have sex with them, as he often did and then threw it back in the face of the husband/father in public humiliations.
Llosa is fascinated, as should we all be, with the fact that these “structures of power are not alien creatures from another world. They spring from the depths of the human soul” (as put in an essay on Llosa that I read recently). This is both the horror of the situation, but also its basis for hope.
A very fine book. Highly recommended.
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highway for Trujillo to appear and the personal histories that led them to this point; the modern-day visit by Urania Cabral, daughter of one of Trujillo’s closet associates, Senator Cabral, who fell out of favour shortly before the assassination and with whom Urania has refused all contact in the thirty-seven years that have passed since she escaped DR to go to school in the USA; Trujillo himself as he ages (he was 70 at his death) and finds that he cannot control the aging process as he could the life and death of countless victims; and a number of other key players such as Blaguer, President under Trujillo and man who continued to play a substantial role in DR politics well after Trujillo, and Abbes Garcia, head of the dreaded secret police; plus various generals and members of Trujillo’s family.It is a wide cast of characters, but the integration of their representative roles in the operation of the regime is seamless, as are the themes that Llosa explores, never didactically, but in consideration of complex relationships and even more complex psychologies. This novel is insightful in its touching upon the sociology and mass psychology of repression; the individual psychology of persons caught up in the corruption of power and influence; the fear and terror and tension of living under such a regime; the lives of those who profit from such a regime, ranging from sadistic murderers to the more complex psychologies of intellectuals who are clear-eyed opportunists, or who spin dense webs of self-deceit; how it is almost impossible to maintain any moral stance once one’s soul is sold to the system that is insidious in how it corrupts and co-opts people at all levels; the much deeper moral question of risking the lives of countless innocent people by your own action, however “justified” that action may seem; the long-term effects of such a system on society and the scars, physical and psychological that individuals carry; the sheer courage and commitment required to oppose such a regime when the penalties, if discovered, make one pray and plead for a quick death that is seldom granted.
Llosa also explores, in the aftermath of the assassination, how no course of events, even seminal events, is pre-ordained but is determined by the actions of individuals. The assassins had acquired the support of General Roman, the Head of the Armed Forces who was to play a key role in mobilizing the military and arresting the key players in the Trujillo government as soon as he knew Trujillo was dead. But he was indecisive, he wasted precious time, though he “new with certainty what he ought to do and say at that moment, he didn’t do that either”. The tension is palpable and you can only feel anguish as the opportunities ineluctably slip away. The regime’s players were able to regroup and take command and for General Roman, the result was four months of incessant, hideous torture.
Trujillo was a monster. Under his rule there were improvements in the economy, public finances, and general well-being of the people, but it was accompanied, and buttressed, by torture, murder, corruption, theft of government revenues in the hundreds of millions. Trujillo, aka the Chief, the Maximum Leader, the Benefactor, the Father of the New Nation, Generalissimo, the Restorer of Financial Independence, ruled through terror and whimsy and constantly setting factions or individuals against each other, grinding people down to the point where prominent men would hide their wives and daughters lest they catch his lecherous eye and he would want to have sex with them, as he often did and then threw it back in the face of the husband/father in public humiliations.
Llosa is fascinated, as should we all be, with the fact that these “structures of power are not alien creatures from another world. They spring from the depths of the human soul” (as put in an essay on Llosa that I read recently). This is both the horror of the situation, but also its basis for hope.
A very fine book. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member mearias
4.5 stars
This book has made me want to learn more from my parents about what it meant to be born and live through the Trujillo era. What it meant to my family and what was really going on during that time. I have heard some stories from my father, but now the context of understanding has
It has also made me think of the depraved regimes that exist today and how complicit we are in our inactivity... why so many men of power choose their greedy and sadistic lives, and so many choose to do nothing.
The Feast of the Goat, highlights the story of the era of Trujillo in a way that makes you see history as real and not just text in a book. Although fictionalized, it brings home, the vast pain of a nation; but also, how blind and apathetic a people can be. It breaks my heart to see that so many innocent people are made to pay for the choices of the few.
I would like think my choices would be different given the same set of circumstances, but then, I was born a different person, in a different era.
This book has made me want to learn more from my parents about what it meant to be born and live through the Trujillo era. What it meant to my family and what was really going on during that time. I have heard some stories from my father, but now the context of understanding has
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broadened... this book has illustrated to me the pain of a nation and it's impact on individual lives.It has also made me think of the depraved regimes that exist today and how complicit we are in our inactivity... why so many men of power choose their greedy and sadistic lives, and so many choose to do nothing.
The Feast of the Goat, highlights the story of the era of Trujillo in a way that makes you see history as real and not just text in a book. Although fictionalized, it brings home, the vast pain of a nation; but also, how blind and apathetic a people can be. It breaks my heart to see that so many innocent people are made to pay for the choices of the few.
I would like think my choices would be different given the same set of circumstances, but then, I was born a different person, in a different era.
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LibraryThing member suzabelle
Suspenseful historical fiction about dictator, Trujillo of Dominican Republic. Told through eyes of several characters: the assassins and daughter of a cabinet member.
LibraryThing member jdpwash
I don't like his political ideas very much but his writing is irrisistable. This is turbo Vargas Llosa.
Red hot Caribbean.
Red hot Caribbean.
LibraryThing member wendyrey
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
Decent overall
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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
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LibraryThing member pamelad
This fictionalised account of the last days of Trujillo, the feared and fanatical ruler of the Dominican Republic, is interspersed with the story of Urania, a 49-year-old lawyer who escaped the island when she was fourteen. Urania's father was one of Trujillo's inner circle, a sycophant whose life
This is a real page turner. I wanted to know Urania's story: why does she hate her father, and why has she never returned to Dominica? Will the conspiracy to assassinate Trujillo succeed? Will the conspirators survive? Will Trujillo's insane brothers and son destroy the country?
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was destroyed when he fell out of favour. Trujillo is surrounded by sycophants, because Trujillo rewards his friends and kills anyone who criticises him.This is a real page turner. I wanted to know Urania's story: why does she hate her father, and why has she never returned to Dominica? Will the conspiracy to assassinate Trujillo succeed? Will the conspirators survive? Will Trujillo's insane brothers and son destroy the country?
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Media reviews
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
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seiner scharf konturierten Personenbilder konnte dieses gleichermaßen beeindruckende wie beängstigende Gesellschaftsbild entstehen, das von einer "spirituelle[n] Knechtschaft" (so der Autor) geprägt sei. Show Less
Language
Original language
Spanish
ISBN
9788466303316
Physical description
576 p.; 5 inches
Pages
576