GOMEZ

Gomez is certainly one of the great dramatic figures of our times and Rourke has told his story with the vigor of a novelist fascinated by unearthing first hand information about this absolute dictator. From the humblest of beginnings, with none of the trappings that give other dictators their power over crowds, Gomez by sheer ability and terrorizing and singleness of purpose rose to be the absolute ruler of a nation, which he brought from disruption to order, from bankruptcy to wealth, at terrific cost to individualism. He must have been Huey Long's ideal. Interesting picture of the country he ruled, and a revealing sidelight on methods of dictatorship, harking back to the Middle Ages. Good reading, for anyone interested in modern politics and our Latin neighbors.