About this title: After her divorce, Julia returns to Peru in search of a mate who can support her high living. Unfortunately, she falls in love with her dirt-poor nephew, an aspiring writer. The scandal of their relationship coincides with the rise of a hot new scriptwriter of racy radio soap operas who blends the worlds of fiction and fantasy.
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Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Soft-cover, w/ cover-, edge-, wear. Owner-name in cover. Spine 'tipped', text lightly 'tanned'. Text in English, Spanish. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. lightly worn on edges but other wise very good binding and pages tight text clean no marks. Text in Spanish, English. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"An excellent book, made me an instant fan of Llosa! The fluency in the writing style of the author is to be admired. I believe this might be one of the very few books that gave me the urge to start reading passages aloud! Those who have read it will recall that there are two different themes alternating in the book's chapters (one being the main affair of the author with Aunt Julia, and the other being the soap operas of the scriptwriter). I remember looking forward to get on with the main story of the love affair in the opening stages of the book, whereas as the book was drawing to its final stages I was more and more drawn into the soap-operas and was looking forward to seeing what spin they would be given. I wonder if other people have also felt the same..."
"I could have given this five stars but the ending left me wanting more. LLosa does a great job paralleling real life events to the scriptwriter's racy radio soap operas! The radio soap operas are hilarious and as the scriptwriter becomes more deranged, the reader feels like they are actually witnessing the downfall of something special. The book also has some great quotes and one that prominently sticks out to me is when Pedro Camacho (the scriptwriter) is talking about how he needs to get the radio actors to be better and announces "But obviously art and money are mortal enemies, like pigs and daisies." Very fun read!"
Amusing, vaguely autobiographical novel (the main character is "Mario Vargas," although the author's introduction makes clear it's only loosely based on his own experience) about a young Peruvian man who falls for his uncle's sister-in-law, a recently divorced Bolivian woman who's 14 years older than he. Although they try to keep their affair secret, it ultimately scandalizes the family, forcing them to take drastic measures. At the same time, another Bolivian, a radio writer named Pedro Camacho, arrives in Lima and electrifies all Peru with his radio melodramas. Mario's affair with Julia is counterpointed with accounts of Camacho's latest picaresque radio episodes, which range from a businessman's Batman-like crusade to wipe out all rats to a parish priest who scandalizes the church hierarchy with his efforts to bring the word of the Lord to his poverty-stricken neighborhood.
The radio segments are by far the most entertaining part of the book. All are outrageous, reflecting (sometimes to ludicrous extreme) the innumerable prejudices of Pedro Camacho himself. What they really have to do with Mario's story is less clear, although by comparison, Mario's story is rather dull, with a distinct anticlimax.
The basic problem with this novel is that while many of its supporting characters are very colorful, its leads (Mario and Julia -- to whom the novel inevitably refers as "la tía Julia," as if to continually underscore the quasi-incestuous nature of their relationship) are pretty bland. We never really know that much about Julia, for instance, or why Mario falls for her, other than that she's attractive and has a certain air of sophistication. It's also not at all clear why she falls for him, since her various reservations about being with him are pretty astute.
The book is entertaining, but it feels like it could have been executed a lot better than it was."
"This book grew on me. I almost gave up on it after the first 100 pages or so and then I started getting involved in the intertwining, sometimes hilarious radio scripts and I was hooked. I do think that it is fundamentally about writing. Pedro Camacho is at one end of the spectrum giving absolutely everything to his craft. Varguitas is at the other end starting and stopping stories, not really doing anything well. Then, he meets Julia and has this unbelievable ability to focus on getting married to her. If he had put that iron will into his writing, what would have happened? Would the result be like Pedro Comacho's? Is Vargas Llosa saying that Varguitas had a happy ending because he learned to love and had the experience of perspective in his life? I'm not sure."
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