The Prince

Tinieblas Trilogy #1

by R.M. Koster

This National Book Award nominee takes us to a not-so-mythical Latin American country where intrigue, violence, and military coups occur as often as taking a breath.

Genres: Fiction

351 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

R(ichard) M(orton) Koster is an American novelist best known for the Tinieblas trilogy—The Prince (1972), The Dissertation (1975), Mandragon (1979)—set in an imaginary Central American republic much like Panama, the author's home for many years. He is the author, besides, of two other novels, Carmichael's Dog (1992) and Glass Mountain (2001), and (with Panamanian man of letters Guillermo Sánchez Borbón), of In the Time of the Tyrants (1990), a history of the Torrijos-Noriega dictatorship. Koster's approach in the trilogy is post-modern magical realism, reminiscent of García Márquez in its sometimes fantastical content. In The Prince, for example, conflict over an American military base near the capital of Tinieblas causes a "flag plague" in which activists break out in stinging rashes of their national colors. As García Márquez's translator, Gregory Rabassa, has remarked, however, "Koster’s magical realism was direct, not an imitation of anyone. He was there in Panama so he just fell naturally into it." In its verbal and structural inventiveness Koster's approach is sometimes likened to that of Nabokov. The Dissertation presents itself as a doctoral thesis with contrapuntal stories in the text and notes. Each novel focuses on a larger-than-life protagonist around whom the action revolves, as in a concerto for solo instrument and orchestra. The author himself likens the books to the panels of a triptych, "since each of the three is complete in itself and since they need not be considered in the order of their publication." Major characters from one book appear as minor characters in the others, and vice versa. The unifying "character" of all three is Tinieblas itself. The Tinieblas trilogy may be seen as an imaginative response to the unrest that convulsed Central America during the 1970s and '80s, and as an extended reference to the work of Niccolò Machiavelli. Each protagonist is a political leader, in The Prince an adventurer on the model of Cesare Borgia, in Mandragon a charismatic like Savonarola. For the protagonist of The Dissertation pursuit of powern is a disease, yet he accepts leadership when it is thrust upon him. Throughout the trilogy the wages of power is death, and there are many incidents of grim violence and grotesque humor, often combined.The tiology received considerable acclaim, including a National Book Award nomination for The Prince. Overlook Press is currently reissuing it. The Prince reappeared in March 2013. The Dissertation will be published in October, 2013, and Mandragon early in 2014. Koster was born in Brooklyn in 1934 and has degrees from Yale and New York Universities. He went to Panama as a soldier in the 1950s and has lived there since. He taught
English at the National University of Panama, and from 1964 to 2001 was a member of the faculty of the Florida State University, serving at its Panama branch. He has lectured in English and Spanish at more than 20 universities in the United States and Latin America. In 2003 he was a visiting professor at Southern Methodist University. Koster has had parallel careers in politics and journalism. He was a member of the Democratic National Committee 1967-1996, served on many Democratic panels, and wrote presidential debate copy for Senator John Kerry in 2004. He has reported for the Copely News Service, Newsweek and the New York Times. Essays by him have appeared in Harper's, Playboy, and other magazines. Koster's work is deeply grounded in the western literary canon, though references tend to be playful not pedantic. In Carmichael's Dog (1992), which takes place in a parallel universe, characters quote the playwright Robin Speckshaft, creator of Malaspina, 'the gloomy duke' who had his dwarf strangled for making him smile. Koster's wife, Otilia Tejeira trained as a ballerina and later had a career as a human rights monitor. They have two children and three grand children.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got into this by accident since I bought The Dissertation cheap, and then realized it was vol 2 of a trilogy... The Prince is part 1. The author has created a fictitious country and builds us an "inside look" at a banana republic. Inside for sure, since the story of society, politics and retribution is narrated by a failed presidential candidate who is totally paralyzed and barely able to grunt. We see life through his flashbacks, and the future (?) through his current thoughts. It is pretty engrossing; worth a trip. Will see how vol 2 does :-)

[Dustin Eubanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A piece of commentary and political satire that--to reflect the comments left by other readers--somehow gets buried beneath other, better known authors of the South American moment. But Koster nails it, and it's thoroughly enjoyable to read!

[Full Stop]

http://www.full-stop.net/2013/06/26/r...

Review by Alli Carlisle

It’s rare that an intensely machista bildungsroman strikes my aesthetic sensibility with such success. In fact, it’s basically never. The opening of The Prince almost induced vomiting — it begins with a revolting scene of imagined revenge, a scenario born in the screaming eruption of wounded, enraged masculinity that involves humiliating and violent anal penetration (naturally). Oh shit, I initially thought, I can’t believe I chose this book.

But then — and you can trust me on this one, gentle skeptic readers — it gets hilarious. Revenge, and the aesthetic of excess that supports it, drive the plot, and provide a locus for the book’s satire of masculine aggression, ambition and political commitment. Our narrator, Kiki Sancudo, the prince to whom the title refers, is the recently paraplegic second son of a powerful political family in a fictional Central American republic. When the narrative begins, Kiki’s father is running for his fourth (non-consecutive) term as President. Kiki, as Koster explains in the preface, is a hybrid of Bobby Kennedy and Tito Arias. Like Arias, Kiki is paralyzed by a gunshot; an Italian movie star for a wife stands in for Margot Fonteyn. He’s a sex-driven playboy from an elite family who stumbles into political ambitions as he stumbles into any number of wild adventures — drug running, gun running, brothel running, going to Yale, an anti-U.S. riot, an accidental coup d’etat.

Read more here: http://www.full-stop.net/2013/06/26/r...

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Going through my mom's library, found three volumes of this R.M. Koster trilogy, which I adored back in the day, and which people have sadly forgotten. He's sort of a cross between Marquez and Robertson Davies, if you can imagine that. South American dictator, wild adventure, magical realism, nominated for the National Book Award. I started with the Dissertation--really, you can start anywhere, the three books in the trilogy are all self contained. Brilliant stuff.

[José Gutiérrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Titled after Machiavelli's masterpiece and Manuel Antonio Noriega's self-proclaimed favorite book, this is a brilliant satire of third world dictatorships. The punning and wordplay is visceral and uncannily accurate in mirroring Panamá's dark history. Were it not written in English, it seems hardly to have been penned by a 'gringo' at all. Highly recommend.

[Jeff Ereverock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiki Sancudo, Latino dude's dude, sits paralyzed in his wheelchair reminiscing about life lived and devising a sweet, slow, excruciating revenge.