Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LITERATURE
Mario Vargas Llosa (b 1936) is Peru's most famous writer, hailed alongside 20th-century
Latin American luminaries such as Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar and Carlos
Fuentes. His novels evoke James Joyce in their complexity, meandering through time and
shifting perspectives. Vargas Llosa is also a keen social observer, casting a spotlight on the
naked corruption of the ruling class and the peculiarities of Peruvian society. His more than
two dozen novels are available in translation. The best place to start is
La ciudad y los per-
ros
(The Time of the Hero), based on his experience at a Peruvian military academy. (The
soldiers at his old academy responded to the novel by burning it.)
Another keen observer includes Alfredo
Bryce Echenique (b 1939), who chronicles the
ways of the upper class in novels such as
El
huerto de mi amada
(My Beloved's Garden),
which recounts an affair between a 33-year-old
woman and a teenage boy in 1950s Lima. De-
monstrating a distinctly Peruvian penchant for
dark humor is Julio Ramón Ribeyro (1929-94).
Though never a bestselling author, he is critically acclaimed for his insightful works, which
focus on the vagaries of lower-middle-class life. His work is available in English in
Mar-
ginal Voices: Selected Stories
(1993). If you are just learning to read Spanish, his clearly
and concisely written pieces are an ideal place to start exploring Peruvian literature.
Also significant is rising literary star Daniel Alarcón (b 1977), a Peruvian-American
writer whose award-winning short stories have appeared in the
New Yorker
magazine. His
debut novel,
Lost City Radio,
about a country recovering from civil war, was published to
wide acclaim in 2007.
If Vargas Llosa is the country's greatest novelist, then César Vallejo (1892-1938) is its
greatest poet. In his lifetime, he published only three slim books -
Los heraldos negros
(The Black Heralds),
Trilce
and
Poemas humanos
(Human Poems) - but he has long been
regarded as one of the most innovative Latin American poets of the 20th century. Vallejo
frequently touched on existential themes and was known for pushing the language to its
limits, inventing words when real ones no longer suited him.
César Vallejo is one of the world's most renowned
poets, influencing writers all over the West. Now
his complete works - in English and Spanish - are
available in a single volume,
The Complete Poetry
of César Vallejo: A Bilingual Edition
.
