The Feast of The Goat

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How I came across this book: Recommended by my boss

Favorite Line from the book:

He turned on the radio. Until a few years ago the news bulletins had begun at five. But when his brother Petan, the owner of the Dominican Voice, found out that he woke at four, he moved the newscasts up an hour. The other stations followed suit. They knew he listened to the radio while he shaved, bathed, and dressed, and they were painstakingly careful.

The world has witnessed many cruel dictators over the last few centuries: Hitler, Stalin, Leopold, Mugabe, to name a few. Latin America and the Caribbean had their count including Batista (Cuba), Pinochet (Chile) or Somoza (Nicaragua). Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was probably one of the worst dictators of the Caribbean society. Genocide, torture, rape, murder was the norm for 31 years he ruled in the Dominican Republic, from 1930 – 1961, in the name of progressing the country to a better future. There was not even one family in the country which was not affected by his regime. Every house had to have a picture of Trujillo otherwise they would have been arrested. He changed the capital’s name from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo. He reigned so much terror in his subordinates that some of them genuinely believed he was the hand of the God and he should be allowed to do anything. Unfortunately, Trujillo was not only brutal but also intelligent. He would enable puppet governments to be formed just to find out who is not entirely loyal to his philosophies. These folks would mysteriously vanish from the island next day. He would put powder on his face to hide his Haitian ancestors so he can justify the genocide of Haitians. Trujillo’s regime ended with his assassination on 30th May 1961.

Vargas Llosa won the Nobel prize in literature in 2010. This novel is as brutal as Trujillo himself. The portrayal of his tyranny and despotism made my blood boil throughout the week I was reading it. The story has three narrators, two timelines, and multiple characters. The lead role is portrayed by a strong fictional character, Urania Cabral who left the Dominican Republic in 1961 to save herself from the regime and returned in 1996 to visit her dying father and rest of the family. The second narration is by the assassinator on the day they killed Trujillo. They are all sitting in the car waiting for Trujillo while the novel goes back and forward with multiple flashbacks recounting the reasons for all the assassinator's individual motives to kill Trujillo. This narration also becomes flash forward and recounts how some of the assassinators were captured after they killed Trujillo. The final narration is from the mindset of Trujillo himself. It was initially hard to follow, but as the timelines started mixing and all the characters began crossing paths with each other, it began to make sense.

The book borrows its title from the Dominican merengue Mataron al chivo ("They Killed the Goat"), which refers to Trujillo's assassination on May 30, 1961. By comparing Trujillo to a goat, it gave the performers and listeners a sense of control over him and over themselves, the feeling which was impoverished from Dominicans for three decades he ruled. My heart goes out to all my Dominican friends and family who had to suffer through this regime only a few decades ago. Trujillo and his compatriots represented humanity at its lowest. The harsh effects of this kind of regimes continue to reverberate and shape the societies for generations to come. The white, the black and the grey will continue to exist in our societies and nations till humanity exists. It is up to each one of us to decide what road we want to follow and whom we want to follow. I will quote Martin Luther King to make my point, “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”