Gutai stood for everything that Japanese totalitarianism had forbidden, urging children to make mischief and encouraging grown-ups to engage in childsplay.
After years of wartime chaos, the budding priest viewed the Roman Catholic Church as a ballast against the destabilizing forces of Nazi totalitarianism.
When Latin America faced the twin threats of terrorism and totalitarianism during the 1980s, Otto Reich was an effective leader in policies and diplomacy that ended conflicts and strengthened democracy in the region.
Whereas the Candide-like picaresque of the first half persuasively evokes life under brutal totalitarianism, the identity-switching and intrigue of the second part seem to originate in little more than the need to spin a yarn.