WingNews logo WingNews
top | item 43677917

Mario Vargas Llosa has died

212 points| funkaster | 10 months ago |nytimes.com

80 comments

order

l3x|10 months ago

Recent article on him in the London Review of Books, exploring his rightward turn as he grew older:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n05/tony-wood/why-did-he...

andrepd|10 months ago

That's pretty much the least interesting thing you could possibly say about the author.

tirant|10 months ago

Many prominent figures in Latin America and Spain turned away from socialist and communist positions after experiencing their effects: Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Octavio Paz (also Nobel Prize), Fernando Savater, Jorge Edwards, Jorge Luis Borges, Teodoro Petkoff...

briandear|10 months ago

Fairly biased article:

“In 2018, he celebrated Lula’s imprisonment in Brazil on dubious corruption charges, and the following year exulted in the right-wing coup that deposed Evo Morales in Bolivia. Since then he has voiced his support for far-right candidates such as José Antonio Kast in Chile and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil…”

“Dubious” charges against Lula? — He was convicted of accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe for helping the OAS construction company get lucrative deals with state oil firm Petrobras.

Did Lula not do that? The claim is that Lula was targeted to keep him out of the election. Seems exactly the motivation for the various charges against Trump. Are charges dubious only when the right does that against the left? Marine Le Pen is another recent example of “dubious” charges being ok as long as it’s only going left against right.

Also Bolsonaro was termed “far right,” but Lula not called “far left?”

Does anyone actually do any neutral reporting or analysis? It seems that anyone to the right of JFK is “far right” while anyone to the left of Marx is “left leaning.”

More importantly, does anyone care any more? Seems like tribalism has gotten much worse over the past few years. The truth is, in the example of Lula is that is is/was very corrupt, but that he’s a leftist seems to excuse that.

alanvillalobos|10 months ago

Probably my favorite author of fiction. The feast of the goat (la fiesta del chivo) is at the top of my list if you have not read him.

svara|10 months ago

I agree, and I agree with that recommendation.

It's the first one of his books that I read and I remember being completely in awe at his ability to write a novel as if he had a machine that allowed him to look into the minds of anyone at any time or place and then document what he saw.

That novel is about a totalitarian system, that of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, and it's eerie how I started seeing the little details of human behavior that enable it in the story elsewhere later as well.

hybrid_study|10 months ago

"La Fiesta del Chivo" brilliantly captures the vibrant essence of Dominican mannerisms and the melodic rhythm of the Spanish accent, instantly transporting me back to the DR. Beyond its rich cultural portrayal, the novel masterfully unfolds its gripping subject matter with unforgettable power.

Que en paz descanze.

nomdep|10 months ago

He was a hugely talented writer, but I hate all his books because of how depressing they are.

moomin|10 months ago

Conversation in the Cathedral absolutely blew my mind when I first read it. Honestly, just the first section would have made a great book all on its own.

DeathArrow|10 months ago

One of my favorite authors and one of the best novelists of all times. I am grateful he existed and that he wrote so much amazing books. I am sad that he's gone.

May he rest in peace!

agigao|10 months ago

The War of the End of the World, unfortunately the only book I read, but it left a lasting impression.

Rest in peace.

yaur|10 months ago

Give feast of the goat a shot. It’s still great and a much quicker read.

treetalker|10 months ago

I can recommend his Los cachorros (The Cubs).

forinti|10 months ago

I've read many of his books and I could certainly recommend all of them.

He was an extraordinary writer.

Mainan_Tagonist|10 months ago

I acquired that one in Argentina last year, will probably read it next week. I only ever read Lituma en Los Andes and El Sueño del Celta, they were nice enough.

flobosg|10 months ago

My mind was blown when I read it as a teenager.

outside1234|10 months ago

For folks reading in Spanish here, what is his most accessible work? (I am a ~B2 in Spanish and have wanted to read a novel of his for a while.)

seizethecheese|10 months ago

I found his memoir much more readable in Spanish than his fiction.

dhosek|10 months ago

I realized last night that I’ve never read anything by him in translation (there was one book in English—A Writer’s Reality—which was in English, but that book was based on lectures given in English and there is no Spanish original. As my ex-wife often says, “No good reason to read the translation if you can read the original.” La Fiesta de la Chivo influenced the form of the novel I’m currently querying (which, despite having had three excerpts published as short stories, appears destined to be yet another trunked work). The biggest challenge I found reading Vargas Llosa is that section and chapter breaks tend to be infrequent giving fewer opportunities to pause while reading.

JadeNB|10 months ago

> The biggest challenge I found reading Vargas Llosa is that section and chapter breaks tend to be infrequent giving fewer opportunities to pause while reading.

I don't mean to be snarky, but, seriously, can't you just pause whenever you want? I understand that the lack of breaks mean that the book doesn't define natural points to pause, but it still seems that one can impose such breaks oneself.

culebron21|10 months ago

Read him while learning Spanish. Conversación en la Catedral is very saddening, but left long lasting impressions and made me a hint to read on history of South America.

jpfdez|10 months ago

“Four, said the Jaguar”

snvzz|10 months ago

La ciudad y los perros sure is a great, if messed up, book.

icar|10 months ago

[deleted]

diego_sandoval|10 months ago

He was never an outright fascist. The closest that he was to it was when he was young and supported the Cuban Revolution, which he later regretted.

After that, he was a classic liberal through the last 50 years of his life.

m0llusk|10 months ago

But first a Communist revolutionary. Interesting and also kind of unfortunate that those who seek fundamental change in political formulations seem frequently to thrash about like this. Moderate incrementalism doesn't get as much attention or press but seems a highly competitive alternative.