Customer Reviews

Dining With the Dictator

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At first glance, this book seems like a simple rite-of-passage tale: young boy goes across the street to commune with gorgeous women and learn about sex and nail polish, or some such thing.

If you look deeper, however, it becomes clear that the journey depicted by LaFerriere is one of political discovery as well. "Papa", a seemingly minor chartacter, lurks in the background, somewhat menacing and completely disinterested in the drama surrounding him. While women kick, scream, yell, and turn on each other viciously, "Papa" (representing Haitian Dictator Duvalier) hardly looks up, hardly notices, does nothing when asked to intervene.

Read this way, the book offers insight into the burgeoning political mind of a young man in a terribly beautiful, terribly corrupt place.

Allright, the catchy title (referring to Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti) and cool cover enticed me into buying this slim, unsatisfying book. Apparently functioning as a sequel to the highly autobiographical "An Aroma of Coffee," it nominally follows one teenage boy's weekend in early 1970s Port-au-Prince. In actuality, the boy mostly functions as an observer of the whirlwind lives of a group of fine young women who live across the street from him. This is reflected by the more apt ordinal French title, which translates to "The Taste/Appetite of Young Girls." Theses women are a fairly unpleasant, nasty, catty, backstabbing lot, and are fairly hard to tell apart. Written as a series of scenes, the book conveys some atmosphere of the time, but not enough to make it worthwhile.

The story goes limp a few times, but I am still there! I love that Dining With the Dictator, was written almost like a screenplay. And the different personalities of the girls clashes together so well that one can't help but to wonder what is going to happen next!