A review by orestisgeo
The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa

5.0

"I say that Roger Casement
Did what he had to do
He died upon the gallows
But that is nothing new"

- W. B. Yeats

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."

- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

The book written by Llosa is nothing less than a deep and intense exploration of human existence. The cosmopolitanism and peculiar character of its historical protagonist, Roger Casement, manage to weave together the personal and the global, as Roger travels throughout Africa and Latin America, in an attempt to observe and ameliorate the suffering caused by the authorities of the Crown upon the indigenous populations.

Writing in beautiful prose, the author manages to bring Roger Casement back to life. A brilliant read, all the more so if seen as an attempt to counter the smear campaign initiated by the british authorities a century ago, in order to deface the legacy of one of Ireland's most treasured thinkers and revolutionaries.

This is the way stories and histories should be written.