Mario Vargas Llosa It was many things: writer, intellectual, controversy, Nobel prize, central figure of the “Latin American boom” and last survivor of a generation that rewritten the rules of narrative in Spanish. Starting from the sixties, he built a monumental work, made of political novels, loving satires, militant essays, autofitions and historical novels, with a single red thread: telling power in all its forms.
Some of his books – The city and dogs, The green house, Conversation in the cathedral, The Caprone Feast – They are considered among the most important of twentieth century literature. Others, like Aunt Julia and Scibacchino or The street narratorshow a more intimate and ironic side, but no less powerful for this. And then there are the latest works, like Celta’s dream And I dedicate the silence to herwho close a narrative and ideological path long sixty years.
Here is a guide to his most significant novels – those to be read to understand who Vargas Llosa was, and because his voice will remain fundamental.
The novel that made Vargas Llosa explode. Set in the military college Leoncio Prado, it is a hard, ruthless work, which tells the structural violence of authoritarian male education. The book was burned publicly in Peru by the Academy officers: a literary debut welcomed with a scandal, as only the real beginnings can be. It is the manifesto of his idea of ​​literature as a raw investigation of reality.
Baroque, labyrinthine, sensual. Here Vargas Llosa pushes the narrative structure to the limit: times overlapping, rumors that are confused, plots that intertwine between the piura desert and the Amazonian jungle. It is the novel of multiplicity, and of forfeiture. A technical, ambitious masterpiece, who won the Rómulo Galgos prize and consolidated its international fame.
Maybe his darkest book. Certainly the most political. “What time had Peru fuck?” It is the phrase that opens the novel and defines its tone. Santiago, the protagonist, dialogues with his former driver in a bar called the cathedral, trying to decipher a corrupt country and oppressed by the OdrÃa regime. It is the most lucid, most disillusioned Vargas, the one that still believes that literature can unmask power.
The autobiography masked by romantic comedy. In this ironic and light novel, the writer tells his youthful love story with his aunt acquired Julia Urquidi, intertwined with the delusional radio screenplays of an unlikely Bolivian writer. It is the book that made those who had only suffered from smiling by reading Vargas Llosa. A jewel of balance between invention and memory.
The novel that most of all tells the deep Peru. An intellectual wonders about the disappearance of a friend, perhaps become a nomadic “speaker” of the Machiguenga tribe. The reflection on the word, on the power of the oral story and on the border (not always clear) between civilization and colonialism. It is a meditative, non -fiction book that reflects the most ethical and anthropological vargas llosa.
The great novel on totalitarianism. With a perfect narrative structure and a psychological thriller tension, it tells the last days of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Here is the whole Vargas llosa adult: the writer who saw the promises of the revolution transform into nightmares, and who analyze the most dark mechanisms with surgical precision.
True story, political novel, fictional biography. It traces the life of Roger Casement, British diplomat who denounced the colonial abuses in Congo and Amazon, and which then became martyr for Irish independence. It is a very dense, almost documentary book, which summarizes all the political evolution of Vargas Llosa – from idealist anticolonialism to disillusioned liberalism.
The farewell. The latest novel. An act of love for Peru, told through Música Critolla and the invented figure of a musical critic obsessed with the idea that a people can join thanks to a song. It is a more fragile, but deeply personal work. The novel with which Vargas Llosa wanted to say goodbye to literature, and perhaps also to himself.
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
