This is the "Blood Meridian" of South America, oddly with humor. ( )

This book is funny and clever; violent and tragic; bawdy and disheartening; sometimes all at the same time. It is full of magical realism and situations so far fetched they ring 100% true. The author's second book set in this fictitious South American landscape is on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list, and I look forward to reading it.
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This is the novel that hooked me on de Bernieres. This is the first of a trilogy of magic realist novels set in an unnamed country in South America. The second and third have equally intriguing titles; they are, respectively, Senor Vivo and the Coca Lords, and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman.

The characters feature the somewhat boorish don of the title, rebels, spoiled and subsequently unspoiled indolent female landowners who become (by virtue of the power of love) something significantly different, a cast of large and relatively docile panthers, various corrupt and not-so-corrupt army men, a native South American man very much in touch with the spirit world and a resurrected conquistador. The tone is musing, humorous and yet tinged with grim horror and sadness; there are laugh out loud moments and episodes you wish had not happened. The themes are universal.

Heartily recommended, as are the equally enjoyable second and third books. ( )

"In a historic feat of compromise," we learn of the country's recent past, "democracy was restored by the abolition of elections."

Firstly I should point out that this is the first of the author's South American trilogy, although to be honest I didn't realise it at the time, but it doesn't really matter as they are stand alone novels and as such can be read in any particular order. The title is also a little misleading as it has nothing really to do with war but instead is a piece of political satire mixed with a touch of magic.

The action takes place in a remote community in an unnamed South American Andean country which is ruled over by a corrupt oligarchy and fascist military officers. Problems begin when Dona Constanza Evans, an aristocratic wife of a wealthy landowner and descendant of a Welsh speculator, decides to divert the local river in order to supply water for her private swimming pool. Astounded by this turn of events the local villagers ask Don Emmanuel, another rich local landowner whose own land is down river of Dona Constanza's property and as such would also be adversely affected if the scheme goes ahead especially as he likes to bathe his 'nether parts in the river, to try and dissuade her.

However, when diplomacy fails Don Emmanuel and the villagers decide to sabotage her scheme. Which in turn has the unintended and undesired affect of bringing both Government soldiers and Communist guerrillas to the scene to investigate until the villagers force the Army to return to their base. Meanwhile back in the capitol of the country the President and a corrupt cabal of military officers are vying for control.

The author cleverly intertwines a series of almost cartoon like incidents inflicted on the Army with some fairly graphic portrayals of torture perpetrated by the Army, an inept and divided guerilla movement, some rather racy sex scenes with tales of romance, witty political satire with the supernatural.

There is an abundance of characters which at least initially can be a little off putting and confusing but if you stick with it they tend to sort themselves out in the end. These characters tend to be fall into certain groups: clever peasants, wise whores, arrogant dames transformed by love, and inept officials .

Although in the novel the country is unnamed many readers and no doubt academics with come to the conclusion that it is based on Colombia, a country that has suffered a number of civil wars over the years in which hundreds of thousand of it's inhabitants have died. Perhaps given this fact and the grimness of the author's political satire the ending, where the villagers establish a new Utopian civilization in a ruined Inca city, is a little too optimistic to bear too much scrutiny. However, this should not take away from the fact that this IMHO is a beautifully written piece of work that left me, if not laughing out loud, with a constant grin on my face. No bad thing surely? ( )

Kitties! Loved this warm, funny, touching novel. I really loved the episodic structure, each chapter an elegantly crafted short story of its own, and how he weaves all these characters and episodes together. Some of the chapters are stomach-turning horrific; some beautifully sweet and tender; some laugh-out-loud funny. Just enough magical realism to keep everything woven together, including magical cats! Tons of characters, some of them not a lot more than types, many of them vivid, all of them beautifully drawn. And the humor. The satirical, wry, British influenced, and Latin influenced humor....dark and slicing and intelligent and wacky with such a keen eye and ear for the absurd. This goes right up among my favorite satire, including A Confederacy of Dunces, Pride and Prejudice, Geek Love. ( )