Vargas Llosa, Mario "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter"

Vargas Llosa, Mario "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (Spanish: La tía Julia y el escribidor) - 1977

After having read "The Storyteller" by this fascinating author, I had to look for more of his books. In this novel which is based on Mario Vargas Llosa's life, at the age of 18, he meets a sister of his aunt who is 14 years his senior and falls in love with her. At the same time, he works for a Peruvian radio station where a Bolivian scriptwriter adds a lot of excitement to everyone's life.

While telling his own story, he manages to insert quite a few of the novelas the scriptwriter has produced. The book is both funny as well as exciting, a very interesting view on the life of an author. Apparently, Julia Urquidi (Aunt Julia) wrote her own story later "Lo que Varguitas no dijo" (What little Vargas didn't say). Sounds quite interesting, too.

Anyway, I loved this book, great read.

In 1990, a film was made based on this book. The title "Tune in tomorrow" sounds like a very good one.

From the back cover:

"Mario Vargas Llosa's brilliant, multilayered novel is set in the Lima, Peru, of the author's youth, where a young student named Marito is toiling away in the news department of a local radio station. His young life is disrupted by two arrivals.

The first is his aunt Julia, recently divorced and thirteen years older, with whom he begins a secret affair. The second is a manic radio scriptwriter named Pedro Camacho, whose racy, vituperative soap operas are holding the city's listeners in thrall. Pedro chooses young Marito to be his confidant as he slowly goes insane.

Interweaving the story of Marito's life with the ever-more-fevered tales of Pedro Camacho, Vargas Llosa's novel is hilarious, mischievous, and masterful, a classic named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Mario Vargas Llosa received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Mario Vargas Llosa received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 1996.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Vargas Llosa, Mario "The Storyteller"

Vargas Llosa, Mario "The Storyteller" (Spanish: El Hablador) - 1987

When the latest Nobel Prize winner for Literature was announced, I was quite excited because I had read a book by him recently. A young man leaves Western civilization and lives among the Machiguenga Indians in the jungle of Peru. He becomes their storyteller, a person who passes on their culture's history and belief. The author has a very unique style, quite different from anything I know, the story is both mystical and mythical. A highly interesting novel. I definitely wanted to read more of this interesting author and added "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" to my list of books recently. Just as fascinating.

From the back cover:

"At a small gallery in Florence, a Peruvian writer happens upon a photograph of a tribal storyteller deep in the jungles of the Amazon. He is overcome with the eerie sense that he knows this man...that the storyteller is not an Indian at all but an old school friend, Saul Zuratas. As recollections of Zuratas flow through his mind, the writer begins to imagine Zuratas's transformation from a modern to a central member of the unacculturated Machiguenga tribe. Weaving the mysteries of identity, storytelling, and truth, Vargas Llosa has created a spellbinding tale of one man's journey from the modern world to our origins, abandoning one in order to find meaning in both."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Mario Vargas Llosa received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".
Mario Vargas Llosa received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 1996.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Steinbeck, John "Of Mice and Men"

Steinbeck, John "Of Mice and Men" - 1937

No wonder this author is so highly regarded by so many. He can make a short story, alright, a novella,  into an epic tale, one that will never leave you.

This book is so full of everything, it touches so many subjects, it's amazing. Of course, as in all his works I have read so far, the story takes place during the Great Depression, this time he talks about migrant workers. In just a few pages, he pictures the life they lead and you are right in the story. You can take this story as an example for so many bad parts of society, prejudice, racism, the poor and ugly side of the world and people dreaming of a better one.

Steinbeck is the best author to explain what has gone wrong with the American dream, he describes the downside of it, the people who don't fit in, even if they try hard. His phenomenal writings cast a shadow into the next century. Nobody describes people and situations better than he did. Nobody draws an image of society as well as he did.

"Of Mice and Men" is certainly one of the gems of world literature that should be read by everyone. You know what is going to happen but you desperately don't want it to happen. Simply beautiful writing.

From the back cover:

"The tragic story of the complex bond between two migrant laborers in Central California. They are George Milton and Lennie Small, itinerant ranch hands who dream of one day owning a small farm. George acts as a father figure to Lennie, who is a very large, simple-minded man, calming him and helping to rein in his immense physical strength."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Also read "The Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden", they are phenomenal.

John Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Wisner, Franz "How the World Makes Love"

Wisner, Franz "How the World Makes Love: And What It Taught a Jilted Groom" - 2009

This was the worst read this year, probably of the last couple of years. Two facts should have warned me. 1. There is hardly any information available about the book or the author. 2. The bright colours on the title, it usually wants to make up for the lack of something, most often the author's brain. But I try to give every book a chance.

I tried to find the humour advertised. Sorry, couldn't find any, I just was too bored. Information - even inspiration? Nothing new or elaborate. There are dozens of other good travel books around.

I did find quite a few mistakes in the book, assumptions he just made but were not exactly correct, that was another spoiler. Towards the end I thought there might be people who could like this book, if they want just a brief outlook on life somewhere else. It grew more and more into a threepenny (or dime) novel. When I went through the annex, I found several books he mentioned as his sources, for example, in Egypt I found he had rewritten "The Yakoubian Building". Quite a few of our members had either been to the places he talked about or even lived there for a while, nobody could find anything remotely interesting.

His writing style was awful, he didn't seem to be able to concentrate, stay with the topic. The whole story was rather shallow, flippant, superficial, poorly written. Someone even called it icky. He seemed to talk the whole time about his first book where his bride left him at the altar and I guess if I had read that one, this sequel would have even been more boring. My conclusion: Chick Lit at its worst!!!

The only people who liked it wanted a "lighter read". Granted, some people might enjoy this when on holidays but there is nothing to talk about in a book club.

One last comment, one of our members mentioned it reminded her of Woody Allen who once said he took a speed reading course and read "War and Peace" in twenty minutes. On questioned about it, he said "It involves Russia". So, he missed out on a fantastic read. That's about the impression this guy gives you.

We discussed this in our book club in June 2010.

From the back cover:

"The bestselling author of Honeymoon with My Brother hits the road again to learn about love and finally finds it closer to home.

When you've been jilted at the altar and forced to take your pre-paid honeymoon with your brother, it's fair to say you could learn a thing or two about love. And that's what Franz Wisner sets out to do 'traveling the globe with a mission: to discover the planet's most important love lessons and see if they can rescue him from the ruins of his own love life'. Even after months on the road, he's still not sure he's found the secret. But a disastrous date with a Los Angeles actress and single mom keeps popping into Franz's head. While researching ideal love, could he have missed a bigger truth: that something unplanned and implausible could actually make him happy?

Uproarious, tender, and studded with eye-opening insights on love, How the World Makes Love'is the story of one average man's search for happinessa search that turns into an improbable love story in the author's own backyard."

Greene, Graham "Brighton Rock"

Greene, Graham "Brighton Rock" - 1938

I quite liked this novel, probably not one of my favourites but really not bad. I also liked "The End of the Affair" in a similar way. A journalist gets killed in Brighton, the police declares it natural causes, a woman who just met the guy decides she wants to find the culprits. I liked the way Greene described the characters, how you really love to hate the protagonist, try to understand the women and all the other people in this novel. Being Catholic myself, I found the religious part quite interesting. The main character used the prayers almost like a mantra without even knowing anything about the background except for the fact that he was "doomed". I liked the seaside atmosphere, however, I can imagine it giving a great background for a movie (which I would love to watch now). All in all, I am glad I read this book and would recommend it.

From the back cover:

"Pinkie, a boy gangster in pre-war Brighton, is a Catholic dedicated to evil and damnation. In a dark setting of double crossing and razor slashes, his ambition and hatreds are horribly fulfilled, until Ida determines to convict him for murder."

Greene, Graham "The End of the Affair"

Greene, Graham "The End of the Affair" - 1951

This looks like a simple love affair between a man and a married wife. They live their affair quietly witout being caught until something terrible happens. Greene describes a life of misery for both protagonists and the novel is quite depressing at times. But the writing is wonderful and  the characters seem very real. They are jealous and obsessed, the relationships perfectly described. The story takes place in London during WWII but I think it could happen any time anywhere. This was my first Greene novel and I have now read "Brighton Rock" which I also quite enjoyed.

We read this in our Dutch International Women's Book Club in 2000/2001.

From the back cover:

"The novelist Maurice Bendrix's love affair with his friend's wife, Sarah, had begun in London during the Blitz. One day, inexplicably and without warning, Sarah had broken off the relationship. It seemed impossible that there could be a rival for her heart. Yet two years later, driven by obsessive jealousy and grief, Bendrix sends Pakris, a private detective, to follow Sarah and find out the truth."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Boyne, John "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas"

Boyne, John "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" - 2006

I read this book on my own before we discussed it in the book club, so I read it again.

There were quite a few mistakes, a few too many to my liking, the whole story seemed unreal because it couldn't have happened that way. Most of our members criticized the book much harsher than I did. First of all, if you base a book on facts, the facts have to be right, no matter what you call it.

We didn't find it easy to warm or connect to the characters because the description was very inconsistent. Bruno, the main character, would sometimes be very naïve, and the next minute he had adult views. The story was very predictable. The friendship portrayal was unbelievable, not just the setting. You can tell, this was written fast.

However, as one of our members pointed out so wonderfully, history is here to be discovered and therefore it is important to make history accessible on all kinds of levels. And therefore, it was certainly worth discussing the book.

We discussed this in our international book club in June 2009.

From the back cover:

"When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences."

If this has been the only book you read about the holocaust, you should try some more.
"Night" by Elie Wiesel and "Fateless" by Imre Kertész, both written by survivors, are some true accounts of how young people lived and survived the terrible life in a concentration camp.