Dining with the Dictator

By Dany Laferrière

Book Overview

1968. Devenu adolescent, Vieux Os quitte le monde de sa grand-mère à Petit-Goâve pour se réfugier chez sa mère, dans une petite maison de Port-au-Prince. François Duvalier est au pouvoir, les tontons... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889104808
• ISBN13: 9780889104808
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Coach House Press
• Length: 207 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Put on your critical thinking hat!

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.

A very good read!

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!