Vargas Llosa, Mario (Vol. 6) | Vargas Llosa, Mario 1936–
Vargas Llosa, Mario 1936–
Vargas Llosa is a distinguished Peruvian novelist now living in Spain.
The similarity of institutions which regulate the instincts of sex and of aggression has not escaped Mario Vargas Llosa, in all of whose novels the army and the brothel are twinned as planet and satellite. But whereas, hitherto, his writing has been noted for a high seriousness and a Sartrian disgust, [Pantaleón y las visitadoras] turns out to be broad farce, rather in the spirit of Valle-Inclán's Los cuernos de Don Friolera….
The army as an institution that exists for the perpetuation of power and prestige has often provided material for satire, although in this novel, Sr Vargas Llosa's criticism seems to be aimed at a more general target—at any institution, in fact, which channels instinct into a socially acceptable ritual. Church, army and brothel all contain potentially dangerous forces although none with complete success....
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