You’ve probably heard, but this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa.
This was a nice surprise since it appears the committee figured out a way to plug the leak they’ve had the past few years. I haven’t read anything by Vargas Llosa, but I hope to soon. Vargas Llosa is the first Latin American laureate since Octavio Paz won in 1990. That was also the last time a writer in Spanish won the prize.
You can see a bibliography of his books over at A Commonplace Blog. You should also check out The Complete Review’s page on Vargas Llosa. Also fascinating is this Independent piece on the Vargas Llosa / García Márquez feud; and here’s the rather silly Guardian piece on the same subject.
Great choice. The Nobel Prize in Literature always manages to surprise me, either because it’s someone I’ve never heard of or someone I have heard of but hadn’t thought much about in a long time, like Mario Vargas Llosa. I saw several lists giving the odds of the top 20 or so contenders, and I don’t think he was on any of the lists. In any case, I remember “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” as one of my favorite reading experiences when I was in college.
I recommend The Feast of the Goat. Think of it as The Brief Life of Oscar Wao’s Older and more serious brother.
Joe, I note that D.G. Myers says that Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is his best, so I’m looking forward to reading it.
Nevertheless, I may first do as Deucekindred suggests and read The Feast of the Goat. I loved the Trujillo bits in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, though I didn’t particularly like that book. I was excited to see that The Goat is the subject of Vargas Llosa’s novel.
Aunt Julia And The Scriptwriter is surely something Michael Chabon has read. It’s a wonderful book.
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is just as wonderful as Lee Monks says. Michael Chabon only wishes he could write something like it.
Who Killed Palomino Molero? (1986) is a good second choice. Equally funny, not nearly so “meta-fictional” (for lack of a better term, and O what a lack!).
agree aunt Julia is a wonderful book ,although I ve only read two of his hope have bad girl read and posted on blog soon ,he was on the ladbrokes list low down ,all the best stu
I read The War of the End of the World when it came out (in translation) and enjoyed it even though I wasn’t familiar with the historical incident he took as a basis for the book. I would like to read it again after reading the book by Euclides da Cunha (Rebellion in the Backland, or something similar) that covers the same events.
I’ve read Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter which I recollect enjoying, but it was 20 years ago now so the memory is rather faded. I meant to read The feast of the goat earlier this year but just didn’t get to it – I guess I should do so now!
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter was the first of his I read too, and I read more after that so it must have been good.
Sadly like WG it was about 20 years back, so all I now recall is that I thought it was excellent. Not the most useful review!
Max, don’t feel bad — I tend to have this problem with books I read a week ago! (“I know I liked it, but I can’t remember much more about it than that.”) Although I love to read, my lack of a “reading memory” is one major reason I could never have been an English major. One book goes in, the last one pops out!