Customer Reviews

Trujillo;: The life and times of a Caribbean dictator

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I started traveling the Dominican Republic in the mid 1980's and first came across this book in an airport in Puerto Plata. After reading it I became even more interested in this person who so dominated this beautiful island for over 30 years. I had a driver who was (and still is) a keen observer of Dominican politics and history. He showed me where the Mirabel sisters where murdered and gave me a sense of what it was like to grow up in country where if you missed school a couple of days in a row your parents would receive that dreaded knock on the door at 0200 in the morning. I think this book gives one a sense of what kind of animal Trujillo was. For most of this, Trujillo's life is ancient history but god help us if there is another like him on todays political landscape.

This is by far the best and most complete book on the long 30 years of the Trujillo regime. Althought not Dominican, I have read several book which are very good. Including the excellent The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, that is a novel, but nevertheless is based, fundamentally, on very solid facts of the times. However, Crassweller's book is really first among its peers. It is objective, well researched, and, as humanly possible, very objective. Crassweller obviosly had access to State Department sources and documents, which are cited in a generous manner. A must read for anybody interested in the matter.

Pleased with purchase; book in a mint condition. A must read. One try to rush through it, but must slow down to absorb each word. Trujillo: The most self-propelled egomaniac of its time. Trujillo;: The life and times of a Caribbean dictator