A wonderful romance, with a cast of - well - dozens. Set in an imagined South American country, the plots involves simple village dwellers, a haughty aristocrat, corrupt politicians, corrupt army types, incorruptible army types and guerrillas. The book is generally racy and light in tone. There you'll find farce, political satire, ribald sex scenes as well as tender ones, and even supernatural events. But de Bernieres doesn't shy away from describing sickening scenes of torture either. Somehow, he conveys the horror without either cheapening it, or detracting from the generally optimistic and up-beat tone of the book.

The characters conform to type on the whole. The peasants are clever, the whores full of common sense, the soldiers brutish and stupid - apart from the ones who are saintly - the politicians self- aggrandising, and the forest-dwellers spiritual. But this in no way spoils the story, which is best read as a magical fable. Justice prevails in the end, the good live happily ever after, and the evil receive their just deserts. A book that demands not to be put down before it's finished. ( )

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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. ( )