Customer Reviews

Assault on Paradise

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Tatiana Lobo's Assault on Paradise is a deftly crafted exploration of colonial Costa Rica. From Juan de las Alas, who defies the Church and gravity, to Pedro and the child Catarina, the characters have depth and personality. In a story that is engrossing and entertaining, the author sheds light not only on a forgotten corner of colonial Latin America but also on the place of women, Indians, and heretics within it.

I selected this book because it was well reviewed and I wanted to "get to know" Costa Rica before I visited there. Unlike other historical novels I have read about other places before I travelled there, this one failed to give me a sense of place. In fact, I could not finish it.

This is an interesting book; limited to one view of one episode in the development of this unusual part of the world; and a one-dimensional perspective on the Conquistadores; an already badrapped bunch at worst not too much fiercer than what they replaced; there's so few virgins in the world today, if the sacrificial practices in place prior to the Spanish occupation had survived into the present it would impose a critical crimp.

Which is not to overlook the Spaniards' own assassination rites in the form of the Inquisition -

so maybe it all balances out.

Paradise is under assault by Europeans again - and likewise Asians - ravaging the landscape under jungles of honeycomb hutch highrise, and loggers' seeming unending decimation of the rainforests. History repeating? Ongoing examples of human nature the spoiler, down through the ages...

It's likely that ASSAULT ON PARADISE accomplished a heightened focus of attention on Costa Rica. Perhaps A CAT'S FULL NINE, in its fusing of past and present - and its fantasy/fictional Perfect Crime gimmmick - will enlarge upon this effort.