Miguel Angel Asturias: THE PRESIDENT

Miguel Angel Asturias, the Guatemalan Nobel Prize in Literature winner, writes in this novel (The President) the story of a dictator and his 'evil schemes' to eliminate his oppositions. The novel doesn't name the country over which the dictator cast his totalitarian rule although it's quite obvious that it could be Guatemala. The President (the dictator) appears only sparsly in the narrative but his grotesque schemes fall into the lives of all the characters, both allies and adversaries, causing physchological devastation on them, and his malfeasance is on every page of the book.

The book has achieved a lot in a literary sense. It's not an easy read and its theme is dark. However, it remains to be a beautiful and well-articulated piece of writing.

Rating: 4.50/5.00

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{September 8, 2010}