Mario Vargas Llosa’s many novels include The Feast of the Goat, The Storyteller, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and, most recently, The Bad Girl. In 2006 he presented the Richard A. Ellmann lectures at Emory University, entitled “Three Masters,” which were adapted for this volume.
In seven incisive essays, novelist and Peruvian political aspirant
Vargas Llosa reflects on literature and history, the crucial role
of fiction in human society and the link between totalitarianism
and nationalism. Lucidly and elegantly, he explores the sources of
inspiration for his literary oeuvre, analyzing the significance for
Latin American writers of Borges, whose works served to "dispel a
kind of inferiority complex...that kept us imprisoned in a
provincial outlook." His social consciousness protests the
suppression of the Catalans and the Basques in modern Spain, as
well as the treatment of indigenous Indians in Latin America. He
conjectures that it's the uneasy blend of two cultures, "one
Western and modern, the other aboriginal and archaic," that
accounts for the prevalence of surrealism in Latin American
fiction. Among the greatest influences on his intellectual
development he cites his mentor, Porras Barrenechea, a professor of
history who illuminated the myths and legends that underlie
Peruvian fiction, and the political theorist Ortega y Gasset...The
relationship between history and fiction is convincingly explained:
"the most fertile moments for fiction are those when collective
certainties...break down," because then people "look to the order
and coherence of the fictional world."
*Publishers Weekly*
Vargas Llosa ponders the thinkers, teachers and ideas that mean the
most to him. It is a glimpse into the workings of a marvelous mind
and an instructive adventure besides...In the end, it is the gaze
of this graceful writer who, by shedding a light on what's inspired
him, offers a gift to all who care about what fiction, philosophy
and politics can do. And as much as readers will value what he has
to say about how we humans cope with our turbulent world, it is
what he knows about literature that, above all else, makes this
little book sing.
*Washington Times*
[Vargas Llosa's] perceptions are detailed and astute.
*Library Journal*
As in his previous collection of essays, The Temptation of the
Impossible, Mario Vargas Llosa proves himself to be a superb
practitioner, critic and essayist. Too often when critics write
about their favourite authors they simply dwell on them. But when
Vargas Llosa discusses the works of pivotal Latin American
short-fiction writer Jorge Luis Borges, he makes you want to go and
re-read Borges...First-rate essays, by a class act.
*The Age*
Seven stimulating essays by one of Latin America's greatest living
writers...[Vargas Llosa] frequently--and tellingly--reminds us that
fiction must have the power to enchant us.
*Times Literary Supplement*
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