I am in the minority, but I found that the wall of bilingual filthy language, graphic violence, and brutality too much to plow through. While this is a prize winning book and praised by literary experts, it was too much for me to retain these images in my mind. I am an educated senior, fluent in Spanish, so had to endure the public restroom style descriptions of every part of the human body in two languages. I deeply sympathize with people who have to live this way, but I would prefer to have read a history book about the Trujillo era. Sorry.