Feast of the Goat

First impressions:

A modern book. This is instantly easier to follow, in the format, the language, the layout, the sentence structure. An evident difference between 1800s literature and Feast of the Goat that my modern brain understands and follows much more fluidly.

Format: 3 cheers for chapters. I find that chapter organization not only helps break up the book (instead of resembling a 400 page monologue), but also gives the book a much more "novel" feel than the psuedo-quasi-fiction-non-fiction of some of the other books. This alone allows me to distinguish easier that I am in fact reading fiction, and makes it a much more leisurely read.

Language: 3 cheers for swearing! Finally a book where words are not made up; where I understand all the words, even those in spanish. However, what is OAS? And excuse my momentary immaturity, but the swearing does keep reading interesting. I feel like I'm reading work from a peer more than from an academic or an old isolated man.

So far the story seems interesting. With a name like Urania it ought to be. I am intrigued though, why has she gone back to Santo Domingo? What are her motives? As well, the switch to read about Trujillo and mornings from his point of view are interesting, as I have gotten as far as to learn about him personally, but not his political interactions, which is backwards to other books: usually we read about political interactions first, and then possibly a dictator's personal life.

Vargas Llosa does like to name drop, and I must admit I've become a bit confused with all the names he's mentioned, from starlets, gringos, senators, crazies, and whoever else they may be. It's starting to get sorted out a little bit, but probaby with reading he will reveal who he is talking about, and all their relations.

I look forward to this book however, I feel I am going to enjoy it.