Honestly my understanding of Llosa is non-existent.
Marquez and Orwell are incredibly interesting but I have not read enough of them. The one I am working on is The Road to Wigan Pier which seems to spend a lot of time dealing with his frustrations of socialism in action (or inaction).
to digress somewhat:
I have been to Cuba and I think much of the American discourse really misses the point on many fronts. Castro is not of the same harsh breed of Russian or Eastern European reds (although similar in some respects). He is of a totally different type (like, qualitatively) than the junta in North Korea. Kim’s (both of them) approaches were widely shunned in the red world for promoting cult of personality and totalitarianism. While most of the practicing red world cares what you do and say (authoritarianism) few actually care what you think in your own head (totalitarianism).
The version of that Castro’s Cuba I think can be most closely compared to China prior to market reforms. There are almost zero images of Fidel anywhere. Camilo Cienfuegos and Jose Marti and Che Guevara are everywhere. There is a strong nationalist streak and lots of CDR (comite en defensa de la revolucion –more like a red rotary club) posters. Oppression is carried out subtly. Everybody fishes (which is illegal) and everybody carpools (which is sometimes illegal). If someone were to complain about the junta, the person he complained to might tell a CDR member (and get some sort of privilege as a result). The CDR would tell the cops and the normal everyday harmless malpractices would be followed like a hawk and potentially get the complainer fined. Small scale complaining is acceptable but it pays not to do it loudly.
So dissent is stifled but not (as a general rule) in a harsh manner and most government policies are framed in nationalist terms. Lots of signs about how they will never again be a Yankee colony. Ironically there was a grocery store there (outside the Russian (ex-soviet) embassy) that had billboards about Bush (dressed as Hitler) and slogans about Yankees and facism. It took only American dollars. Weird.
