Mario Vargas Llosa - Nobel Prize Winner

Deserved, I think.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/06/world/europe/AP-EU-Nobel-Literature.html?_r=1&hp

at least it's not a surprise/obscure writer.

ts: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/10/08/books/08nobel-web/08nobel-web-articleInline.jpg v.
http://medias2.lesdessousdusport.fr/image/article/normal_c6460779d9af0469bd77c9bfbb3c9306_475.jpg

some of his work is really great (feast of the goat, city and the dogs..)

and some is pretty mediocre (the bad girl..).

but overall, a worthy winner.

I had the misfortune to read Oscar Wao a week after Feast of the Goat.

Where's the best place to start by the way? I've had The War of the End of the World on my bookshelf for a year or so and haven't yet got round to it.

I've been marginally interested in Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter for a while.

I'd checked the Ladbrokes odds the other day and don't recall him being in the top 20, but given the Academy's predilection for politically engaged writers, the selection does make sense.

In Praise of the Stepmother's a good one.

now now we dont have to go trashing junot diaz in a thread that isnt about him

i prefer it when they give this to writers who will piss off harold bloom tbh

"Where's the best place to start by the way? I've had The War of the End of the World on my bookshelf for a year or so and haven't yet got round to it.

― Matt DC, 12:37 יום חמישי 7 אוקטובר 2010 (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
"

War of the End.. is one of his best books - so it's a good place to start.

Th Feast of the Goat is his latest masterpiece.

Conversation in the Cathedral is suppose to be great - didnt read yet.

he is very easy to read. when he tends to experiment and/or involves in "erotic" fiction he is pretty skippable imo.

time for Fatima Mansions to reform and rush re-release their song about him.

Hahah I love this detail:

Vargas Llosa is the first South American winner of the prestigious 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) Nobel Prize in literature since Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez won in 1982.

The two have long been rivals, and after the announcement Garcia Marquez tweeted: "cuentas iguales," — a poetic way of saying "Now we're even" in Spanish.

i prefer it when they give this to writers who will piss off harold bloom tbh

― max, Thursday, 7 October 2010 13:57 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"Garcia Marquez tweeted"

had to read this twice to be sure

A quick search is turning up a lot of debate on this, unsurprisingly.

Hahah

i read The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta about 20 years ago, liked it well enough but didn't make me want to rush out and read any of his other works

This essay was actually the first thing I ever read by him. (Only a link and an abstract there, unfortunately.)

at least it's not a surprise/obscure writer.

― Zeno, Thursday, October 7, 2010 Bookmark

:-(

I've only read Death in the Andes

That's no one of his better ones imo and politically vile.

First time in my lifetime one of my favourite writers has won this.

Will start The War of the End of the World this weekend. I agree with the dismissal of Death in the Andes – it didn't engage me at all except for the sporadic accounts, more plentiful in the first half, of the paramilitary executions.

i don't know why i called death in the andes one of his better ones, though politically vile is correct.

this guy is one of the big ones to me, he's up there with gabo, and in fact because gabo is so out of fashion in a way nowadays, so florid, so exotic - in a way latin america was but no longer is - he's more "relevant". Also one of his best novels came out in 2000 (feast of the foat), marquez hasn't written anything since 1980 or thereabouts.

but... had never heard him speak before and i was sort of disgusted (it turns out he is peruvian!). solo for spanish speakers, a wee documentary about roberto bolano:

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/television/imprescindibles-roberto-bolano-21-10-10/908584/

GOAT FFS

disgusted in a purely aesthetic way of reacting to his accent tbh.

how is he politically vile? Just curious.

i don't find him poltically vile. he is, for a latin american rightist, quite reasonable in general.

death in the andes basically attributes the terror of the sendero to indigenous pre-columbian savagery, this doesn't really fit with reality.

if only peru could have been more european.

actually now i love vargitas' accent.

He did start out his career as the darling of the left.