Feast of the Goat post 1 and 2 combo?

I really hate being a bad person, and wish that I could just blame it on simple procrastination, but I cannot. I’ve been buried under so much schoolwork these last few weeks that I can hardly see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes we are all really busy, but I’ve really over extended myself this term. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned this year is that sleep debt gets compounded like interest on your credit card. Way too much of my course work this term has been internet based, and I’m beginning to feel like a distance education student that doesn’t get the benefit of living in some exotic local. I get frustrated with being forced to chain myself to a freaking computer, then when I finally close the lid of my laptop in frustration, the guilt of being behind on my long distance correspondence sets in… I’ve just had an overdose of The Internet...

I’ll bitching/venting aside though, I’ve read the Feast of the Goat in the last few days, and have to say that it’s indeed my favorite of the whole lot. The prose is a breath of the fresh air. The broken up plot line is exciting, making for a real page-turner. The plight of the daughter is definitely the easiest part to empathize with.

I know so little about the Dominican Republic and once again feel that I could get a little more out of a book like this if my knowledge of the history in this area were a little more honed. The graphic violence towards the end of the book certainly gives one an in-depth understanding of both the brutality of the Trujillo regime and also the resentment and vengeance that his opponents so deeply feel.

Someone had mentioned in class that this book reads like a movie. Many contemporary works of fiction follow the same type of pattern that we see in this novel. This is just seems like Llosa is a very trendy author, was writes in style that is extremely contemporary. This is certainly the most contemporary work we have read so far. Movies like Pulp Fiction also copy this kind of popular contemporary story telling style...