Truth and fiction intermingle in this fluid true-story narrative: the events are real. The characters and situations are re-created. And the lies that overthrew the democratically-elected president of Guatemala were not. In it, we can imagine the way that the US-based United Fruit Company fabricated a lie and used it to join forces with governments, disaffected mercenaries, and enemies of Guatemala's president's to stage a coup d'état. The process, if not the change of government, changed the course of history in Latin America. Despite the fact that the outcome is known to history, the reader can't help to sit in suspense until the last moment, hoping against hope that this time it could be different.
Stories like this break my heart. Vargas Llosa is a favorite author of mine, precisely because his work illustrates so well the passions and weaknesses of human nature. His portrayal of time so closely reflects reality--it doesn't really pass in an orderly, linear fashion, as we would like to believe, but instead takes unanticipated trips to the past alongside possible projections into the future. This is lyrical imagining of the details of historical reality, breathing humanity into what we read coldly in textbooks. It is also a timely reminder (although perhaps new to some?) of what the US Government and human nature are capable of doing in the quest for power and money.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.