Photograph of the Day

Marlon Brando

Literary Pick (****)

The Feast of the Goat
-Mario Vargas Llosa

Luckily for me I was already familiar with Trujillo's reign of terror from previously reading "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. Perhaps that is how I became fascinated by Trujillo's tyrannical reputation as the president of The Dominican Republic. The stories about Trujillo are like the kafkaesque nightmares that most of us have experienced, about the fear of losing one's freedom, losing one's integrity and self-respect. Fears of being unable to escape that all too watchful omnipresent entity. Trujillo was a living devil, he took whatever he wanted and banished anyone who not only opposed his regime, but also those who even thought of opposing it. He was the absolute ultimate psychological oppressor. He was known to publicly humiliate high-ranking member officials of his own inner circle, in person and through the local newspaper, which was of course owned by the Trujillo family. If he wanted to have sex with someone's wife or daughter, there was not much a husband or father could do about it. If they resisted they would simply be sent to jail to be tortured and maimed by Johnny Abbes, head of the SIM, another ruthless heartless demon who worked for Trujillo. Trujillo was indeed a goat who consumed everything in his path. His demonic presence was so strong in the hearts of the Dominican people that even after his death citizens were still terrified of him, as if he would come back from the dead and punish all those who dared believe he was mortal.
The Feast of the Goat weaves the fictional story of the life of Urania Cabral and her father Agustin Cabral (president of the senate), with non-fictional events of the Trujillo era and regime. Each chapter is jammed packed with fascinating and unbelievable accounts of some of the events that occurred during this period, It's one of the best books I've read this year. However, I admit that one of the reasons I was able to enjoy it as much as I did is because I was already familiar with the history of the Trujillo era. This book could be overwhelming for someone who is not familiar with it, so It's really worth looking into before diving in. The only fault in the book is that Llosa tended to quickly switch from narrating, to story-telling, if that makes any sense at all.. So one has to pay close attention to who is speaking and what scene is taking place at any given moment. Other than that each and every chapter of the book was enthralling. I'm so tempted to give it 5 stars.

Food Loves Writing

RIP

Elizabeth Taylor
(February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)

Literary Pick (***)

The Easter Parade -Richard Yates

 

 Quite an interesting story, but not half as good as Revolutionary Road. The synopsis on the back cover suggests the story is about two sisters, Sarah and Emily Grimes, but it seems to focus more on the younger sister, Emily, a divorcee career woman who has had quite a few casual relationships in her life. Her sister Sarah, is married to an abuser, they have three boys. Sarah is an alcoholic like their mother Esther (kookie) Grimes. I think their father, Esther's husband, was an alcoholic too. The novel is a steady-paced account of the lives of these two siblings. But mostly about Emily's detached relationship with her mother and sister. I guess Emily, as a then modern-day career woman (the only one in the family who graduated college) felt smarter in more ways than one than her sister who got married so young, and her over-bearing mother who ultimately ends up in an insane asylum. In the end Emily ends up worse than her mother and sister. Her live-in boyfriend leaves for an ex-wife. She then loses her job, ends up in a smaller Apt. on unemployment, with nothing to do, nowhere to go. She decides to call an estranged nephew, (Sarah's son) moves to New England to stay with him, his wife and their little girl, has a mini nervous breakdown from the station to his house. I think this book might have impacted me more than I'd like to admit.

Yates is so easy and pleasant to read, so although I didn't consider this a 4-5 star novel, I still enjoyed reading his work and I thought the story was very unique.

Photograph of the Day

Viviene Leigh

Literary Pick (**)

The Bauhaus Group: Six Masters of Modernism
Nicholas Fox Weber

Not as exciting as I had anticipated. I expected the story of The Bauhaus Group to be as riveting as Peggy Guggenheims "Art Lover" or Frederick Kaisler's "Art of this Century", instead it was excruciatingly boring. I did however, enjoy reading about Gropius, Klee and Kandisnky's lives, but somehow I knew that once the author got to the Albers' life the gossip wouldn't be as juicy, since most of the recollections came from Annie Albers and Josef themselves, (they were married for over 50 years). I've had an interest in learning more about the Bauhaus group for quite some time, but I can't say I learned much about the movement or it's aim from reading this book. I think Weber might have even turned me off to the movement entirely. I give it only two stars.

Literary Pick (*)

Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy

This book took me too long to finish. Normally, I go through books faster than I go through towels, but Anna Karenina is true to Tolstoy's form, he writes beautifully, but what's missing is deep-rooted psychological honesty and emotion. Sometimes I think Tolstoy was too hung up on his own agenda of Puritanism to allow himself to be true to the realistic direction of human nature. For Tolstoy women belonged here, and men belonged there, and you read it in all of his books. He was also hung up on peasant-workers (muzhiks) and their rights, a topic that resurfaces in all of his works. Although his short stories, The Kruetzer Sonata and The Death of Ivan Illych are two of my all-time favorite stories, I'm glad I don't have to read any other of his larger works again.

I would like to say that the most disappointing part of the novel wasn't Anna's anti-climatic suicide, but Levin's totally superfluous character.