The Assault: A Novel (Pentagonia)

Tells the tale of the terror of totalitarianism. People are as animals. Life is a joyless, horror. Life is dark, miserable, and full of pain. Despite the completely terrible nature of the story it is extremely creative and a good read. Read in just one day. Marvelous.

Hopefully the successful audience response to the film of Arenas' "Before Night Falls" will encourage readers to explore the unique and vastly enriching glimpses of Castro's (or any dictator's for that matter) Cuba. The author's style is indelibly his own, reporting and commenting on the conditions of political supression, whether he elects to satirize in the first person/s as in "Color of Summer" with its over the edge surreal view of contemporary Cuba, or placing the narrator from within as in "The Assault". Truth, as he viewed it, is so ludicrous that it becomes black comedy, not unlike Goya's "Goyescas". But for all the unsettling details of this tale of destruction of all that matters in our past, this book, once read burns a spot in our minds that makes it almost necessary to revisit it lest we forget the joy of freedom. Tough reading, but highly recommended.