Translator: Edith Grossman

The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa

Posted July 30, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 0 Comments

Title: The Neighborhood (Goodreads)
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa
Translator: Edith Grossman
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016
Pages: 256
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I have been reading a lot of authors lately that I have been meaning to try for a long time, which leads me to pick up The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa. The novel follows two wealthy couples that find themselves embroiled in a salacious scandal, starting with a politically motivated blackmail that lead to photos being published in a gossip magazine. While the actions of one man, this scandal affects not only his own wife but also his lawyer and his wife.

Set in 1990s Lima, The Neighborhood explores the not only the effects of one person’s actions but also the seedy underbelly of Peruvian privilege. Most people are aware of my love for political turmoil in my literature, so this was a book I knew I would need to read. However it was not the political elements that ended up interesting me but the personal affects a scandal had on the people around him. While Enrique is navigating through the blackmail and threats of exposure, his wife is in the midst of a passionate love affair with his lawyer’s wife.

This brings me to the major problem with the novel, sex. I am beginning to wonder why male writers even attempt to write sex scenes because they far too often come across as cringe worthy. The lesbian affair was one of the most interesting aspects of the story but whenever Mario Vargas Llosa started writing about sex, the novel becomes unreadable. This is probably some of the worst sex scenes I have read, and I mean they are worse than people like Haruki Murakami and I think he has won the Bad Sex in Fiction award. (Note: Murakami has not won the award but has been nominated numerous times. Also it is interesting to note the ratio of Men to Women who have won the award; 22 to 2).

Mario Vargas Llosa has this great ability to demonstrate just what is going on in at the time politically. I wanted to learn more about the corruption and politics of 1990s Peru. I think he has a unique ability to blend the political landscape into a personal story. Exploring not just the effects of the country but how it personally affects an individual. Judging by the book, I could not tell you what political views has, but if I had to guess, I would say he was in the centre of the spectrum with a slight lean to the left.

There is so much to really enjoy about The Neighborhood, it is just a shame a vital part of the novel lets the entire book down. Rather than Vargas Llosa writing out his lustful fantasies about lesbians, he could have talked more about the world. Alberto Fujimori was the president at the times and there is a lot there that would be worth mentioning. I would rather explore that to descriptions of armpit licking. Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature, “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.” To be fair, this was done to perfection. If there were not any sex scenes I would confidently pick up more Mario Vargas Llosa novels, but at the moment, I am too worried.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Posted July 5, 2016 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Classic / 8 Comments

Title: Don Quixote (Goodreads)
Author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Translator: Edith Grossman
Published: Harper Perennial, 1615
Pages: 940
Genres: Classic
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Don Quixote is a staple in western literature, it ushered in the golden age of Spanish literature and it is also is one of the earliest examples of the modern (canonical) novel. The novel tells the story of a Spanish nobleman (Hidalgo) obsessed with the chivalric romance literature of the middle ages, who sets out to try and revive chivalry. With his trusty squire Sancho Panza, he sets out on an adventure to undo all the wrongs and injustices he encounters in the world. Claiming to be a knight. he gives himself the name Don Quixote of La Mancha.

From the very start, we get a sense that maybe Don Quixote is crazy. In psychology the term Quixotism relates to “over-idealism” and is often used in reference to someone with a naïve romanticism towards utopianism. The term “tilting at windmills” refers to a scene near the beginning of the novel where Don Quixote races off to fight giants that were actually windmills. If you consider that Don Quixote went mad from all the books he was reading and set off to try and fix the world, then this could be used as a metaphor towards Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra own feeling toward the same books, but rather than fixing the world he wrote Don Quixote. This brings to mind the quote from Toni Morrison “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

Don Quixote, like many books of the time, was read to children; this is a novel I could never imagine being read to any child now. However one thing that makes this novel so great is that there are so many interpretations to be taken from the text. Harold Bloom (who wrote the introduction to my copy of the book) calls this a work of radical nihilism and anarchy, in the way it glorifies fantasy over reality. Calling him the Sorrowful Knight whose objective is that “He is at war with Freud’s reality principle, which accepts the necessity of dying.” The translator of the edition I read, Edith Grossman, has said, “When I first started reading the Quixote I thought it was the most tragic book in the world, and I would read it and weep”. However when she worked on the translation she remembered “sitting at my computer and laughing out loud.”

After the French Revolution a popular interpretation of the novel was that it was about ethics and righting the wrongs of society. While later on it was a social commentary which always lead to the discussion of whose side Cervantes was on. You could even pull some religious or feminist themes out of this novel but for me, I read this as a Marxist text. The relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza was a good representation of the class struggle. It is evident that Quixote needed Sancho Panza more than Panza needed him. Sancho Panza was there to rise the ranks of society while Don Quixote was be completely lost without his squire.

I cannot talk about Don Quixote without mentioning the way that Miguel de Cervantes played with intertextuality. This novel is split into two parts; the first part was originally published in 1605. In 1614 a second volume was released by an anonymous author. It is believed that Miguel de Cervantes started writing his second part after this and in 1615 it was released. While part one was a spoof of the literature that annoyed him, part two was more an attack on this unauthorised story of Don Quixote. It even made references to this scandal as Don Quixote explores the concept of someone writing about him.

This is the type of novel that deserves to be read again and again. Every reading will probably offer something different and this review is a reference point of what I got out of reading this book the first time around. If you get the chance, I recommend reading this with someone. I read this with Hilary from Yrrobotfriend and the discussions were the best part of this reading experience. While reading this novel I enjoyed part one the most but on reflection, I think part two offers more.

Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo

Posted April 18, 2015 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Crime, Thriller / 2 Comments

Title: Red April (Goodreads)
Author: Santiago Roncagliolo
Translator: Edith Grossman
Narrator: Jonathan Keeble
Published: Atlantic Books, 2011
Pages: 288
Genres: Crime, Thriller
My Copy: Audiobook

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Associate District Prosecutor Felix Chacaltana Saldivar does everything by-the-book, he is organised and knowledgeable on the laws of the land but this tends to rub people the wrong way. When a body is found burnt beyond recognition, Chacaltana’s life is never going to be the same. The investigation into this unique murder leads the associate District Prosecutor to question the choices the government are making. Set during Holy Week in Peru, Red April is a chilling political thriller that explores a twisted murder and a morally bankrupt government.

Red April takes place during Lent 2000, mainly in the Peruvian city of Ayacucho and follows a methodical prosecutor as he investigates a bizarre crime. These were the final days of Alberto Fujimori who vacated the presidency and fled the country in November 2000 due to a major corruption scandal and allegations of human rights violations. When Fujimori came to power in 1990, Peru was dominated by two terrorist organisations, the Maoist group Sendero Luminoso and the Marxist-Leninist organisations known as Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). It was not until about 1997 when most of this internal conflict resolved, but this was achieved by the Grupo Colina, which was a death squad made up of members of the Peruvian Armed Forces.

Set in the early 2000s, this novel explores that period of time where people loved Alberto Fujimori for making them feel safe but corruption is becoming a big problem. Even the main protagonist struggled with the idea of not supporting the president. Saying something like “the terrorist killed my mother, brother and sister but since the president took office, no one else from my family has been killed. Why would I vote for somebody else?” This hold on the past is something that runs strong throughout the novel, particularly with Associate District Prosecutor Felix Chacaltana Saldivar who holds on to the memory of his mother. The book is set during Lent and then Holy Week which is a time of reflection and to remember the past, when Christ died for the sins of the world.

Peru is a very religious country, in the 2007 census only 2.9% identified as non-religious, with 81.3% claiming to be Roman Catholic. The Catholic Church is a very important part of the country, even Article 50 of its constitution states that “[the Church is] an important element in the historical, cultural, and moral development of the nation.” The city of Ayacucho, in which the majority of this novel is set. lays claim to 33 Catholic Churches (one for every year of Jesus’ life) and hosts a large religious celebration during Holy Week every year. When reading Red April you quickly learn just how important religion is to the Peruvian people and the plot of the novel.

One of the things that fascinated me about Red April is the culture depicted within the book. Santiago Roncagliolo did not shy away from depicting the dark themes or the problematic political situation that Peru faces. He questions the counter-terrorism strategies of the Fujimori government but also depicts the overall sense of relief that the people had when terrorist organisations were dealt with. The corrupt government and the bureaucratic nightmare that Felix lived through all gave a sense of the political landscape. The Associate District Prosecutor did everything to the letter of the law, including sending rapists to prison; however this made him an outcast, even the rape victims got angry that they were unable to marry their attackers and get their reputation intact.

One reason I read a lot of translated fiction is because I find it interesting to explore different cultures and worlds. The Peru depicted in Red April is so foreign to me that I could not help but be spellbound by the cultural differences. Red April was the 2011 winner of the International Foreign Fiction Prize (IFFP), a literary award I have started to follow closely now that I read more books in translation. The novel was translated into English by Edith Grossman and is a book that I picked up in order to read more books from South America. I am very glad to have read Red April, not only is it an excellent mystery/thriller but as you can see it was an interesting insight into Peru.