I the Supreme

I cannot rate this book. I swung like a pendulum between thinking it the best novel I've ever read, and by far the worst. Certainly the most difficult and dense, but equally the most rewarding. I'm very pleased I did read it; I was also relieved when it was over. Some parts seared themselves into my brain, others I skimmed uncomprehendingly. But by the end of it I felt that I had come to know the extraordinary, mercurial El Supremo, and I glimmered with a tiny understanding of Paraguay. These have to be worth something...