The Feast of the Goat

The Feast of the Goat (Part 1)

Just another example of literal and figurative language. While I would love for the book to be explicitly literal, it is definitely not about the feast of an actual goat! The novel is set when Trujillo was dictator of the Dominican Republic. Figuratively, the novel describes the personality of the dictator (Trujillo), his allies, his enemies and the tortures that he submitted the population to during his reign. The story seems to overlap with various focuses. I wasn’t quite sure which storyline to centre on, but as I continued reading it seemed that they are all interwoven. First, there is a focus on Urania Cabral, then on Trujillo (aka the “goat”). The book seems to resemble The General in His Labyrinth because Trujillo’s rule is coming to an end just as the General’s rule and power were coming to an end. This novel also reminds me of I The Supreme because Trujillo seems to be just as obsessive as the Supreme (e.g. his fanatic morning routine: row, brush teeth, shave, etc). I also referred to Wikipedia and find it very interesting that the title of this book is taken from the popular Dominican merengue Mataron al Chivo (They Killed the Goat). I’m still not quite positive what the significance of this is, but as the Wikipedia article explains it “has its roots in the assassination... [of] Trujillo”.