Mario Vargas Llosa

In praise of the stepmother

Matcha Donut

Brilliant but hated it at the same time. What a sick child he got and the ending kinda confused me.

Анастасия Розова

*Read for class.

I am at a loss. This is one of the weirdest book I have ever read. I'm not even sure about a rating I should give it and should I give it at all?.. I think I'll settle in the middle. 3 stars, but they're not your ordinary 3 stars...

On the one hand, the book was disturbing to say the least. 3 pages of a man taking a shit? Little boy seducing his step-mother and her giving in? Thinking she was the one to start it and being okay with it later? You can imagine my feelings.

On the other hand, I do understand the beauty of what Llosa did in this novel. We have a lot of references to myths, mostly ancient Greece/Rome. Even a biblical one. This was a reason I had to read it for class after all.
Lucrecia absorbed so many characters in herself, it was very interesting to read about. And those descriptions of different paintings were great as well.
He also showed us an ambivalent nature of the boy, Fonchito. He is an angle, in which he convinced everyone, but he is a fallen angel, Lucifer - as his dad called him. Fonchito is great at manipulating people without them even knowing... And he's not evil, he's just not out of this world. At least it felt like it.

Honestly, it's very hard to describe what I'm feeling toward this book. I'm glad I've had such an experience, glad we discussed it in class, but, not gonna lie, it was a weird one.

Carmen Hew

this. is actually. really good? somehow? loved chapter 12, hated chapter 6.

Con la sabiduría del meticuloso observador que es y gracias a la seductora ceremonia del bien contar, Vargas Llosa nos induce sin paliativos a dejarnos prender en la red sutil de perversidad que, poco a poco, va enredando y ensombreciendo las extraordinarias armonía y felicidad que unen en la plena satisfacción de sus deseos a la sensual doña Lucrecia, la madrastra, a don Rigoberto, el padre, solitario practicante de rituales higiénicos y fantaseador amante de su amada esposa, y al inquietante Fonchito, el hijo, cuya angelical presencia y anhelante mirada parecen corromperlo todo. La reflexión múltiple sobre la felicidad, sus oscuras motivaciones y los paradójicos entresijos del poder putrefactor de la inocencia, que subyace en cada una de sus páginas, sostiene una narración que cumple con la exigencias del género sin por ello deslucir la rica filigrana poética de la escritura.

In praise of the stepmother

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