My Recent Dominican Phase
Some might call it a Dominican Series. On a recent set of flights to Tejas, I decided to read Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa. His characterization of Trujillo, Trujillo’s dictatorship, his assassins, and his successor were so complex and interesting that during the flights back, I decided to pick up Junot Díaz’ The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Díaz spared even fewer punches with the dictatorship, calling Trujillo “Truzilla,” and used such an invigorating style to discuss the diaspora, that I was hooked into a full-blown Dominican phase. I just started reading Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, though I’ve had a few moments when I’ve thought about leaving it in the park for someone else to read. The Alvarez book I’d be the least likely to recommend.
Let me break down the books a little bit: The Feast of the Goat is one of the best portraits of a megalomaniac that I’ve ever read. The book has alternating points of view, going between a woman whose father had worked with Trujillo and who is in the present recalling the dictatorship, the assassins’ moments before shooting Trujillo and during their subsequent torture and who are recalling their work with Trujillo and therefore their motives for killing him, Trujillo the day of his assassination and often reflecting on the good work he has done pulling the DR into modernity, and later, Balaguer’s POV comes in, too. Which might sound like a crazy amount to juggle in the kaleidoscopic look at power, memory, sex, mesmerization/fear–but Vargas Llosa pulls it off. I was amazed at his portrayals of Trujillo and Balaguer, because they seemed so fair. Vargas Llosa doesn’t constantly call Trujillo a monster, just an old man with a incontinence who’s still trying to fuck little girls. As the story goes on, the style becomes more journalistic, as the reader wouldn’t want to inhabit the body and emotions of the men being tortured.
Oscar Wao is hip and moves quickly, lightly, surprisingly. It’s weaving together a character of the diaspora who is Dominican and a D&D nerd. T-zilla has 400 hit points; Oscar has fewer, a brief life cut short by corruption upon his return to the DR. T-zilla is already dead (the “bringing of justice,” not an assassination), but the violence carries on. The themes include: personal vs. cultural identity, the state vs. the family, the continuation of injustice even after the bringing of justice.
But In the Time of Butterflies? I was excited; I wanted to read about female revolutionaries. I imagined these Mirabal sisters as intense women, filled ideals and personal power and fighting power (easily 1600 hit points between the four of them, right?). After all, that’s how they had been portrayed in the first two novels. Female Fidels and Ches. In this novel, though, they are sensuous and devoutly Catholic women who just happen to get mixed up with a revolutionary movement. One reads of their first periods, their boy-craziness, their love of their families and of God, their erotic masturbation experiences. They have been reduced. They are the everywoman as seen by the everyman and described by a woman. The alternating POVs serve as an evasive maneuver–when the shit’s about to get thick with one character, the POV shifts to another, and the reader is left to wonder about what has happened in the white space. (Good thing my imagination had been primed by the other two, or I might not think that Trujillo tortured these people.)
So, if you want to learn something, check out Mario Varga Llosa’s book; if you want something more experiential, get a copy of Junot Díaz’ book (though I have been told that if you’ve missed the mandatory two seconds of taught DR history, some of the references are difficult); if you want some solid chick-lit, look up Julia Alvarez’.
It’s kind of in the titles too, isn’t it? I mean FEAST,GOAT,WONDROUS and then …. butterflies :) But, I’d take female masturbation scenes over male masturbation scenes any day.
In the Time of Butterflies has been on my shelf for a while. I’m glad you told me I should read the other two books before I tackle it. I want full enjoyment during my reading. Thanks!
“Butterflies” actually comes from their revolutionary code names, but still…
Butterflies are always in fashion!
[...] He can make history come alive, and has written the best depiction of Trujillo and his Dominican dictatorship that I’ve read. [...]
[...] been a fan of fiction with historical notes for a while, so maybe that’s why I was drawn into all of the characters’ stories about [...]