Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Mario Vargas Llosa became one of my favourite authors. So far I have read 3 of this books: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The Feast of the Goat and Notebooks of Don Rigoberto. What surprises me is that all the 3 books are different in regard to the subject, message, style etc making it difficult to believe that all of them have been written by the same author. The Feast of the goat is tragic, full of nastiness and cruelty, as it tells story about the dictatorship of Trujillo, a dictator ruling the Dominican Republic. It makes you sob to the extend that reading some parts of the book becomes really uncomfortable. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is in contrast one huge outburst of laugh. I wonder if anyone can recommend any other books of his to me?

Another thread on Mario Vargas Llosa: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...

Charity - thank you so much! this is really appreciated! Agnieszka

Have you read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao? Which is another author's story about the Trujillo years in the Dominican Republic. It's also a list book. I've been meaning to read Fest of the Goat to compare the two books.

Shay - no I haven't but thank you for recommending it to me, definitely I will, Even now after reading a few reviews of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao I believe there are some similarities between both of the books. Especially in regard to cultural aspects such as:men trapped into the machisto Latino stereotype, the complete lack of fidelity, womanising, family ties. However The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao sounds to me like a story about a boy who was growing up in the country ruled by a dictator,obviously bearing all the consequences of the situation. The Feast of the Goat is more around how the regime was changing and destroying human characters. It tells you a story about people being mistreated in the most inhuman way, about manipulation, constant mistrust, degradation of any values. Sometimes when one watches a movie some shots are so unpleasant/ scary that he closes his eyes, like in horror movies. The book contains passages (torture inflicted on prisoners), which make you turn your head away and flicker through sentences. To me the book was just excellent.

i have read evrything MVL has available in english. to me his best is "Death in the Andes" which is a great story and gives insight into the revolutionary group the shining path. second place goes to "Conversations in the Cathedral". The cathedral is a seedy Lima bar but the story is a knockout.

ron cook

Ron, thank you so much for recommending these two books to me as I have not read them, at the same time I do love Llosa's writing style, the narrative, characters, story etc. Both of the books are landing immediately on my "to read" list!

Agnieszka, thanks for your comment on MVL. did you know that he ran for President of Peru?

ron

To all Goodread members in this forum, I recommend reading Mario Vargas Llosa's novel The War of the End of the World, which is based on an uprising that took place in Canudos in the late 1890s, which initially repulsed the Brazilian Army, who had been sent by the national government to suppress it.

The War at the End of the World is so far my favorite Vargas Llosa book - so bloody and brutal. All of his books I've read have some degree of blood and guts, but WAR was the worst in that regard - still, it was the most gripping.

I'm set to finish Feast of the Goat today, and it's probably my second-favorite of his books. While the beginning starts off slow, the second half of the book is a breathless race of a read. Good stuff!

From BBC Radio 4:

Open Book: Reader's Guide to Milan Kundera

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0607247

Mariella Frostrup is joined by Benjamin Markovits to talk about his new novel You Don't Have to Live Like This: A Novel. It's an ambitious story of a group of old college friends who attempt to find a new direction by living in a regeneration project in Detroit.

We discuss Milan Kundera's new novel The Festival of Insignificance. Publisher Elena Lappin and Benjamin Markovits share their view on this and recommend their favourite from his earlier work.

Alan Samson, non-fiction publisher at Weidenfeld and Nicholson, recommends a collection of cultural essays from South American literary giant Mario Vargas Llosa in our Editor's Tip for July.

And finally with the eagerly anticipated publication of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, over fifty years since To Kill a Mockingbird first came out, Professor Diane Roberts looks at Lee's place in the literary traditions of the south.