TYRANT OF THE ANDES By Thomas Rourke
Mr. Rourke's life of Juan Vicente Gomez (Michael Joseph, I2S. 6d.), late President of Venezuela, never quite succeeds - in Making that astonishing figure credible. The way of a dictator with a nation often defies analysis, and we do not expect Mr. Rourke to explain the uncanny power of one man's will. But we do expect a biographer to do more than astonish us with a recital of facts in the believe-it-or-not manner of popular Sunday journalism. Gomez was an illiterate Andean farmer of mixed Indian and Spanish blood. By hard work, natural ability and ruthlessness he acquired wealth and the fearful respect of his neighbours. We admire this quiet, strong personality, with his genius for handling men. When he grasped the Presidency without firing a shot at the age of 43, we feel that he deserved it. Mr. Rourke then shows us a mean, inhumanly cruel tyrant holding his position by sheer terrorism—a loathsome figure without a redeeming trait, and leaves us wondering w tat happened to the young peon about whom there was a touch of greatness.
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