His first novel, The Time of the Hero, was an indictment of corruption and abuse... based on the writer's own time as a teenager at the Leoncio Prado Military Academy, which he described in 1990 as "an extremely traumatic experience." His two years there made him see his country "as a violent society, filled with bitterness, made up of social, cultural, and racial factions in complete opposition". The school itself burnt 1,000 copies of the novel on its grounds, Vargas Llosa claimed.
His experimental second novel The Green House (1966) was set in the Peruvian desert and jungle, and described an alliance of pimps, missionaries and soldiers based around a brothel.
The two novels helped found the Latin American Boom literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Boom was characterised by experimental and explicitly political works that reflected a continent in turmoil....
April 14, 2025
"With his death, the last of the Latin American Boom's great stars has gone."
I'm reading "Mario Vargas Llosa: Giant of Latin American literature dies at 89" (BBC).
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24 comments:
Latin writer
The writer's morality does not lie in the subjects he deals with or the arguments he sets forth, but in his behavior toward language. (Octavio Paz, Alternating Currents p.67)
MVL: among the best. Captain Pantoja is one of the few novels that made me laugh.
Of course, the NYT subhed says he was "divisive."
"Essayist" is an appellation we no longer see very often. He was an interesting writer and big thinker.
The Boom was characterised by experimental and explicitly political works that reflected a continent in turmoil..
I'm going to assume the political works were exclusively left wing, given the time period and the fact that they are celebrated.
Won a nobel prize, I must have missed that and Ive never read a thing that he wrote. Looking at his novels on Good reads - they seem interesting. I might try "War-to End-the-World" about a Brazilian civil war in the 19th century.
Seems that most writers dislike their father and/or hated going to boarding school or being in the military. Artistic temper?
"I'm going to assume the political works were exclusively left wing, given the time period and the fact that they are celebrated." Pretty easy to google this stuff. He was strongly anti-left.
Spain did not inculcate the instinct of good government in its colonies, rather the promotion of rapaciousness. In Spain each great family is its own mafia.
I've read his entire oeuvre of work and have seen him speak/read on several occasions. I honestly would not recommend either _The Time of the Hero_ or _The Green House_ to a first time reader of his fiction.
But I can say with all honesty that his La Tía Julia is among my favorite novels of all time.
As the Elizabethans said, an Englishman will piss in the street, a Spaniard will piss on your door.
"Pretty easy to google this stuff. He was strongly anti-left."
Fair enough. I was talking about The Boom in general and not feeling motivated or charitable enough to research it.
he was one of the few antileft novelists, in the 60s, he broke with Fidel, one of the few Latin novelists to do so, in th 80s, he broke with Alan Garcia over the nationalization of banks, in 1990, he ran a quixotic presidential campaign, perhaps fearing the results that he predicted in the novel, Alejandro Mayta(I wrote a piece in the college paper, about that campaign) he was sabotaged by his campaign manager
his sons perfect latin american idiot, encapsulated most of the left fads that came back in the 00s, after the Argentine default the rise of Chavez et al
by the 00s he seemed to have mellowed or reverted supporting a former lefty general, Humala, and in the last decade, he divorced his wife, and married Julio Iglesias ex,
only to change his mind subsequently,
"His experimental second novel The Green House (1966) was set in the Peruvian desert and jungle, and described an alliance of pimps, missionaries and soldiers based around a brothel."
That can't be true. AI wrote that!
El Mokko says: ‘there are writers and there are great writers.’ Mario Vargas Llosa was certainly one of the few remaining great writers in Latin America. He leaves behind a great body of work that I fully recommend to anyone reading about his passing today. As Ezra Pound said when he was burying James Joyce great writer: read him!
Do the same with Vargas Llosa.
The War of the End of the World is one of very few modern novels that really blew me away, I cannot recommend it enough.
"an alliance of pimps, missionaries and soldiers based around a brothel"
For a second I thought this was about the present-day Democratic Party. To be fair, it also describes MAGA. Just in different ways.
JSM
Feast of the Goat one of my all time favorite books. Had everything — a tremendous book. His best.
In my opinion, The War of the End of the World is one of the best novels of the 20th century.
Oh and let's not forget that he once punched Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the nose.
I don't know if I'll ever go back to reading novels, but if I could find one of his on audiobook, I'd give it a chance. I did read some of his non-fiction. Notes on the Death of Culture is feast for your inner pessimist/catastrophist.
I also remember MVL's worries about his pothead son, who ended up a more or less respectable libertarian think-tanker. Gabo's son ended up at HBO - in the very heart of yanqui imperialism.
https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Perfect-Latin-American-Idiot/dp/156833236X
hollywood made a terrible adaptation of the aunt novel, which was set in Cuba, so they moved it to the states, and they put Keanu Reeves in it,
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tune-in-tomorrow-1990
Another big loss. I remember liking The War of the End of the World, and The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, but not much more about them. I loved Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. Just recently loaned that to a friend of mine who agreed with me.
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