Estación de máscaras / Masquerade Season
Novel , 1964
Drácena
Pages: 268
Álvaro Collado, the novel’s protagonist, returns to Caracas in 1948 after ten years of exile. What he finds among his old friends and acquaintances does not surprise him so much as it repels him: the city is abuzz with anticipation for an imminent coup d’état.
The feverish efforts to court the country’s next ruler —along with the shady characters surrounding the future dictator— shape the gallery of figures that populate this story. Through its plot, Masquerade Season exposes the hypocrisy and ruthlessness of an entire society.
With Masquerade Season, Arturo Úslar Pietri brought to a close what was originally conceived as a trilogy —The Labyrinth of Fortune— ultimately reduced to two novels: this one, and its predecessor A Portrait in the Landscape, both chronicling the social upheaval that oil exploitation brought to Venezuela.