Without a doubt Mario Vargas Llosa is a great writer. For me, one of the best. It did come as a shock that the last novel published in November would be his last. I have still to read it but I do have it on my shelf. Then in mid December he announced in his regular El País column, that he is also pulling out of journalism.
Wow, double floored. It happened when I was reading this volume of essays, published in 2022. This is a big book, 785 pages and 148 essays (I counted). It spans 60 years! That in itself is damn amazing.
So what did I think? There are a lot of thinks to consider. First, because is is such a well-known and respected writer. He got started back in the late 1950s and 1960s with the Latin America Boom writers. Actually he is the Boom, knowing personally Gabriel Garcia Marquez, stayed with Julio Cortázar and his wife, and hung out with Carlos Fuentes. So his inside info is really that. Damn good stories! When a book came out for one of the Boom writers, it was worth reading his essay on that person/book.
Second, the man got around, literally. He left Peru, ended up in Paris, London and Madrid, then was a professor in the United States. His first prize was given out in Caracas, then off to Mexico City, Habana and when he returned to Lima, he landed in numerous places in Latin America. He is fluent in French and English on top of his native Spanish. He has amassed a massive collection in books. And won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The collection of essays is divided into numerous sections, beginning with his thoughts on literature itself. These are needed to get a handle on the man and where literature was going when he started. Great essays include La literatura es fuego (Literature is Fire) and El arte de mentir (The Art of Lying). Sounds like his work.
Third, the man is incredibly well-read. That leads to the bulk of the essays and divided into language/regions: Latin American, French, English, Spanish,* and other countries. Then sections on libraries, reading, theatre, movies and finally art. His essays on Cervantes, Flaubert, and Víctor Hugo are truly enlightening. The highlight for me was to read about those many authors I have yet not read, and compiled a list of what to read. I love a book that keeps on giving.
*what, no Javier Marías!
Fourth, it may seem obvious but if you ever read one of his novels, the man can write with incredible style. Often an essay may start with a personal anecdote or some off the cuff remark and before you know it, he ramped it up and is circling in for the “final word.” It is a book of criticism and MVLL doesn’t mince words.
And this can also be his downfall. He can be so damn eloquent in one essay and then so “harsh” in the next. In the art section that I truly enjoyed, he can be so astute on an artist, their styles, their contributions and their lives. A big example is the fine essay on Frida Kalho, “Resistir pintado” (To resist painting). He writes:
“Ella no vivía para pintar, pintaba para vivir y por eso en cada uno de sus cuadros escuchamos su pulso, sus secreciones, sus aullidos y el tumulto sin freno de su corazón.” p. 737
She does not live to paint, she paints to live and because of this in each one of her paintings, we hear her pulse, her secretions, her howls and the tumult with breaking her heart.”
That is the best way to sum up her art. Hands down.
But then, at several shows at the Royal Academy of Arts back in the 1990s, early 2000 he is not impressed with the African artist Chris Ofili with his elephant dung paintings or Damien Horst and his half sharks and diamond studded skull. Shock of the new. Trite? All about money? Amazingly he talks about the French Impressionist painters and their shock of the new. In another essay, he praises Monet who at the time was the richest artist. Its an inconsistency that is too apparent.
But I digress. This is a master collection and its only volume I. It was a treat to read but I am a big fan (and probably read the next volume). Its not for all, but these essays prove how important Vargas Llosa has been for the last half century. I can’t criticize this.
Maybe a last word: “O mundo está para os velhacos.” p. 418 The world is for the rogues. He is one of them.
4.5 stars