Mario Vargas Llosa: A Life of Writing

Awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 at the age of seventy-four, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has held pivotal roles in the evolution and revolutions of modern Latin American literature. Perhaps surprisingly, no complete history of Vargas Llosas works, placed in biographical and historical context, has been publisheduntil now. A masterwork from one of Americas most revered scholars of Latin American fiction, Mario Vargas Llosa: A Life of Writing provides a critical overview of Vargas Llosas numerous novels while reinvigorating debates regarding conventional interpretations of the work.

Weaving analysis with discussions of the writers political commentary, Raymond Leslie Williams traces the authors youthful identity as a leftist student of the 1960s to a repudiation of some of his earlier ideas beginning in the 1980s. Providing a unique perspective on the complexity, nuance, and scope of Vargas Llosas lauded early novels and on his passionate support of indigenous populations in his homeland, Williams then turns his eye to the recent works, which serve as a bridge between the legacies of the Boom and the diverse array of contemporary Latin American fiction writers at work today. In addition, Williams provides a detailed description of Vargas Llosas traumatic childhood and its impact on himseen particularly in his lifelong disdain for authority figuresas well as of the authors who influenced his approach, from Faulkner to Flaubert. Culminating in reflections drawn from Williamss formal interviews and casual conversations with the author at key phases of both mens careers, this is a landmark publication that will spark new lines of inquiry into an intricate body of work.