Product Description

Urania Cabral, a New York lawyer, returns to the Dominican Republic after a lifelong self-imposed exile. Urania's own story alternates with the powerful climax of dictator Rafael Trujillo's reign. In 1961, Trujillo's decadent inner circle - which includes Urania's soon-to-be disgraced father - enjoys the luxuries of privilege while the rest of the nation lives in fear and deprivation. But after the murder of its hated dictator is carried out, the Dominican Republic is plunged into the nightmare of a bloody and uncertain aftermath. Now, thirty years later, Urania reveals how her own family was fatally wounded by the forces of history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43472 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-17
• Original language: Spanish
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 recreation 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 ageing and paralysed 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. Although once "the spoiled darling of the Yankees" this arch manipulator whose corruption permeates every aspect of Dominican life, is now viewed as a serious liability by Kennedy's government and several members of his own ruling elite.

As the novel edges toward Trujillo's inevitable murder, Urania's story (the novel's weakest link) gets a bit lost in the action; the remaining narratives, however, are rarely short of mesmerising. 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 skilfully outmanoeuvred 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

Times Literary Supplement
'The Feast of the Goat will stand out as the great emblematic novel of Latin America's twentieth century and removes One Hundred Years of Solitude of that title.'

Spectator
'Mario Vargas Llosa . . . has written a brilliant and deeply thoughtful novel...'

Customer Reviews

Power, hope and betrayal . . .
Wow, what a novel! I was completely blown away by this tour de force from Llosa, a gruesome, bitter, but beautiful tale told with the vivacity and skill we've come to expect from him. The story is woven cleverly around a central historical event and a central ahistorical event, while unravelling an intriguing story of power, hope and betrayal.

Unlimited power is portrayed compellingly in the Goat, a taudry charismatic, egotistical maniac ruling the Dominican Republic. His subtle art of suspicion and less subtle art of violence allow an iron grip to take hold over a small clique of insiders who in turn take an iron grip over a whole nation. It is the ultimate fable of a society infected from the top with bile and cruelty, seeping out to destroy all in its wake.

Hope is found in the plot to unseat this power, through characters completely distinct, and painted with wonderful prose into twentieth century heroes. Their hope is true, their motivations distinct, but their aim clear. The way in which this is betrayed by naivety and recklessness is a great tragedy in this novel.

Finally, the heartbreaking aspect of this book is the betrayal, the betrayal by power and of hope, centred through the largely metaphoric role of the daughter of a Senator. Her fate is realised brilliantly through the use of diverging time devices, and is at once tragic and deeply symbolic of the infection mentioned above.

I cannot commend this book enough, it could well be one of the top 10 or 20 pieces of fiction of the twentieth century.

Thrilling, engaging, superb
The Feast of the Goat is a thriller in the best sense of the word. It is utterly engaging, a tale of a dictator who dominates his people yet cannot control his bladder. The central character of Trujillo shows how absolute power corrupts absolutly. Llosa describes how one man can come to dominate a whole nation and its people through fear and intimidation, a web of corruption and guilt that renders those around him incapable of breaking from their master's spell. Llosa also shows the fall of a dictator also brings its own problems and how events can cast shadows that linger long after the evnt is over and forgotten by most.

Overall, a superd read, I'd recommend it to all.

The best from South America since 100 years of Solitude
South America has produced some wonderful novels over the past few decades. But Mario Vargas Llosa's 'Feast of the Goat' is a truly astonishing accomplishment from a very multi-talented and controversial figure. Those who read the works of Vargas Llosa will need no persuasion in getting hold of the book, but for those who are browsing through Amazon, I can honestly say that this book is superb: it has so many different features. Principally, it is a thriller, a real page-turner, but one which you have to be in the mood. It works in a non-linear way, the best comparison I make probably is with films, such as Memento or Pulp Fiction. It switches back and forth across two periods, as as the story goes on, there are more and more developments and layers to the story. Gradually you piece together the incredible history that Vargas Llosa has laid out before us. Ok, its a thriller, but its also a great piece of literature. Dazzlingly written, atmospheric and very psychological. It is a testament to Vargas Lloas's writing technique that he allows the reader to follow and digest a highly complex plot with reading enjoyment and ease. He plays with the reader's mind by submerging the reader into the inner dialogues and minds of the characters while at the same time maintaining an all-seeing overview of the story's events. It has a sense of history, a sense of the tyranny and madness of the 20th Century, a powerful sense of the subconscious terror that a few, even one, can inflict upon so many. A remarkable book. Before I read Feast of Goat, I would have said that Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude was the benchmark of South American literature, and it remains one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century. But Vargas Llosa has at last proved himself to be one of the great writers, and this book, very different to 100 Years of Solitude, takes South American literature to a different level.