The Feast of the Goat

I am re-reading Mario Vargas Llosa's 2001 novel about the Dominican dictator Trujillo and am impressed again by his ability to build interest, and suspense, with a meticulous yet seemingly effortless hand. Vargas Llosa's thing has always been creating a "fictional reality," in essence a spell cast over the reader to make him believe not only that everything he is reading is true but that what is happening could not happen in any other way. A reader is immersed in a Vargas Llosa novel: characters lift off the page, sights and smells are real, and the momentum becomes irresistible. It is a credit to this novel that, knowing what is ahead, I still am eager to experience it all over again.