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Title: Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman ISBN: 0-14-026215-6 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not your tourguide Peru!
Comment: This is a very unsettling book. The way it is written contributes to this. At times, conversations are layered into story telling so the reader is kept uncertain of who's speaking. This echoes the uncertainty of the times the people in the book are experiencing. The harsh conditions of the Andes, with its thin air, dried vegetation, freezing nights and burning sun serve as a backdrop for the gripping story of cruelty, death, politics and sorcery. Colonel Lituma is driven to find the fate of three people who have disappeared from the camp. He knows he probably doesn't really want to know what happened, but he has to investegate to satisfy his curiosity. I was completely under the spell of this book and will be looking to read more of this author.
Rating: 4
Summary: Structurally a Mystery Story - Captivating and Memorable
Comment: Death in the Andes is a story of brutality and fear and ignorance. The language is often coarse and vulgar. The ending is especially disturbing. Were it not for the remarkable writing of Mario Vargas Llosa, I might have put this unsettling story aside. But Mario Vargas Llosa is a captivating story teller and I found myself wanting to know more and more about his characters that inhabit the harsh mountains of Peru.
The reader encounters alternating viewpoints and layered conversations that intermingle the present and the past, forcing the reader to remain alert. Death in the Andes is structurally a mystery story in which two soldiers assigned to a barren outpost investigate the disappearance of three men. The brutal Shining Path terrorists (the Senderistas) are the natural suspect, but Corporal Lituma also mistrusts both the townspeople (largely traditional Indians) and the construction work crew building a highway across the mountains. Initially, he has little patience for talk of the pishtacos, vampire-like humans that sucked the blood and ate the melted the fat of their victims.
There are stories within stories. Young French tourists are stoned to death, rather than shot, to save bullets, and to permit others to take part in the killing. In fascination we listen to a lonely young man describe his improbable love of a prostitute. We witness a village turning upon itself and selecting victims for the Senderistas. We meet an aged, repulsive woman who in her youth helped kill a pishtacos. We gain a nebulous understanding as to why Peruvians and foreigners involved in re-forestation programs and nature preserves become prime targets for assassination.
I have already begun to read Death in the Andes again and I am searching for more writings by Mario Vargas Llosa. Although I found his portrait of contemporary Peru to be unsettling, disturbing, and haunting, Death in the Andes will appeal to the reader on many levels. It is a memorable lesson in history, in cultural conflict, and in man's inhumanity.
Rating: 5
Summary: A bold description of human violence
Comment: This is the first book I have read by the author in particular, and of Peru in General. While the book is full of amazing insights into Peruvian culture, I could not help seeing that the almost unlimited potential for violence described here is universal, and applies where ever human beings are assembled.
The peasants of the Andes are in constant fear for their lives, either by starvation, in the hands of the rebels, the government or the evil spirits.
Their ancient traditions, which kept their lives tolerable in past times, are disintigrated, leaving them drunk and desperate.
Just like peasants and poor people almost everywhere, they are helpless and have no control what so ever about their destiny. From this condition, emerges violence that is at first shocking, and then, as the book progresses, looses some of its initial horror and becomes almost acceptable.
This book is highly recommended, although it may be noted that people with weak stomachs may not be able to handle it.
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Title: The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa ISBN: 0140262601 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Feast of the Goat: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman ISBN: 0312420277 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 09 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa ISBN: 0140248927 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Storyteller : A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, Helen Lane ISBN: 0312420285 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 03 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro ISBN: 067972267X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 September, 1990 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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