Well below par
|
For me, this is definitely Vargas Llosa's weakest offering yet. Although entertaining enough, and written with his undeniable skill and style, this latest novel is well short of Vargas Llosa's normal high standards.
Essentially this novel is a story following the inextricably linked lives of the 2 main characters, across various continents and decades. Disappointingly, however, the underlying theme of the novel seems to be the author's desire to demonstrate his knowledge of all the countries in which he himself has lived over the various decades, rather than having any great story to tell. The story itself is threadbare, a poor man's Love in the Time of Cholera, and is essentially a ridiculous sequence of coincidental meetings between the writer and the nina mala. The novel crescendos to a farcical level, when the protagonist has a chance meeting with the nina's father in Peru.
Normally so insightful and probing, Vargas Llosa spends little time or care in examining or describing characters outside of the central plot.
Once I have overcome my disappointment, I will re-read some of his other works, so as not to leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
|
|
Passionate, brilliant
|
In its passion for love, life and writing, Mario Vargas Llosa's latest novel returns brilliantly to the inspirations of one of his best novels 'Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter'. In 'Travesuras de la Niña Mala', a young idealistic young man leaves Miraflores in Peru with no greater ambition than to spend the rest of his years living in the most beautiful city in the world, Paris. He is content to be nothing more than a humble translator and interpreter as long as it allows him to remain there, but a mysterious beautiful woman from his past turns up unexpectedly, and his life never again knows a moment's peace. Despite the torments she puts him through over the subsequent decades, he is continually unable to resist her charms.
There is little doubt that the desirable but uncontrollable 'niña mala' is nothing more than Ricardo's muse, the vital impulse to interact with life and write about it - each of her appearances coinciding with a new decade and new stage in the opening up of narrator's life. Even when the author is describing the most passionate of love scenes with the irresistible 'bad girl', you suspect that the only banging going on in all those hotel rooms and Parisian garrets is on a typewriter.
It sounds like a clever conceit, and anyone failing to catch the subtle literary subtext will undoubtedly struggle to get past the apparent coincidences of Ricardo's encounters, but Vargas Llosa makes it all completely real with his passionate and brilliant writing. 'Travesuras de la Niña Mala' is a dazzling, entertaining and deeply poignant work that, whether you are a writer or not, sums up the need to wholeheartedly embrace life, to make the most of the friendships that come your way, accepting all the joys and the heartaches that enrich the experience.
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada