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Title: The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa ISBN: 0-14-026260-1 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.64 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Powerful Story of Canudos
Comment: Vargas Llosa's gripping 1981 book is a fictionalized history of Canudos, the community in the dry interior of Brazil that was utterly wiped out by the Brazilian army in 1897. Vargas Llosa's book is as long (over 500 pages) and as dense as the seminal Canudos book "Rebellion in the Backlands" by Euclides da Cunha, and those fascinated by the story will want to read both. This book takes da Cunha's as its point of departure, for where da Cunha was a military engineer who accompanied the military campaigns against Canudos and wrote about the event's impact on the Brazilian identity, Vargas Llosa is a novelist captivated by the human element. "The War of the End of the World" is the massive story of four successive military campaigns against a religious sect (part-Waco, part-Masada) that killed about 10,000 people on both sides. It is built on the lives of many key personalities. By threading together the life stories of several real Canudos inhabitants who included criminals, castoffs, and misfits with the lives of landowners, journalists, and military officers, including the famously brutal general Moreira Cesar, Vargas Llosa both chronicles the Canudos tale and creates a powerful human novel.
Da Cunha was intrigued by the "why" of Canudos. What fostered a fanatical religious sect in Brazil's interior, allowed it thrive and grow, and why was it the subject of such national fear that the fourth campaign against the village involved fully half of the Brazilian army? Da Cunha spent dozens of pages writing about Antonio the Counselor, Canudos messianic leader. Vargas Llosa is less sympathetic to the military's point of view, depicting Canudos as a safe haven for those rejected by society, by sweethearts, employers, or the church. An island of broken toys. Vargas Llosa writes very little about Antonio himself, casting a reflected light by describing him mostly through the words and actions of his devoted followers. ("Death was more important to these people than life. They had lived in utter dereliction and their one ambition was to be given a decent burial".) Where da Cunha concludes that Canudos was a result of a failure by the Brazilian society and government to embrace all of its citizens -a conclusion that led to a reexamination of Brazil's national identity- Vargas Llosa is less sure. He raises a lot of explanations that have gone before (monarchist conspiracies, racial inferiority, lack of education, "something to do with religion", even a lunatic European communist who tries to make Canudos fit his notions of class warfare ) without settling firmly on any one. Finally, he concludes uneasily, "the explanation of Canudos lies in ignorance".
This is a gripping novel, a powerful tale of warfare, an exploration of intriguing individuals who met in the atavistic isolation of Brazil's parched interior. A Latin American novel devoid of magic realism, for the story of Canudos is fantastical enough.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fanaticism and Obsessions
Comment: During the 1964 presidential campaign, Barry Goldwater was branded a fanatic. In defense of the term Goldwater said something like: "Fanaticism in the defense of freedom is a virtue. The soldier who gives his life to protect our freedom is a fanatic." I remained comfortable with this until I read War at The End of The World.
Vargas Llosa's historical novel is a study on fanaticism and obsessions: religious and patriotic fanaticism, fanatical idealism and obsessions of power, material possession, and sexual pleasure. Every chapter has samplings of these destructive forces, which succumb to villainous misfortune even when the intent is righteous and honorable. Llosa does a superb job in creating multi-dimensional characters who are driven and eventually destroyed by that inner force which decries moderation. It's frightening that we can see all these forms of fanaticism and obsessive behavior all around us in today's world.
This novel of epic proportion utilizes events as a backdrop for the players. There's excessive violence which is described in profanely graphic detail. But, I can't recall any novel where all the characters are exposed in such intimate detail. Every quirk, vice, virture; every musing, distraction, and feeling are revealed. Vargas Llosa leaves no thought unexplored or unchallanged. The one exception is the central character, the Counselor, who remains an enigma throughout the book.
I strongly doubt if anything was lost in translation. The translator, Helen Lane, kept the writing fluid and very much alive.
Rating: 5
Summary: Stunning.
Comment: This novels stunned me for these reasons:
Richness of cultural detail;
Excitment of narrative drive;
Inspiring, convincing writing;
Knowledge of the historical period;
Fascinating characters.
This is an epic creation; immensely rewarding to read.
Bravo!
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Title: Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman ISBN: 0140262156 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Feast of the Goat: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman ISBN: 0312420277 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 09 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Storyteller : A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, Helen Lane ISBN: 0312420285 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 03 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa ISBN: 0140248927 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Way to Paradise : A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, Natasha Wimmer ISBN: 0374228035 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 19 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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