Talking Books with Mario Vargas Llosa

Reviewed by: Talking Books with Mario Vargas Llosa: A Retrospective ed. by Raquel Chang-Rodríquez and Carlos Riobó David P. Wiseman Chang-Rodríquez, Raquel, and Carlos Riobó, editors. Talking Books with Mario Vargas Llosa: A Retrospective. U of Nebraska P, 2020, pp. 231. ISBN 978-1-496-22025-7. Contributing something entirely new to a conversation on Mario Vargas Llosa can be a daunting task due to the expansive corpus of scholarship already published on the Nobel Laureate. Though sections of Talking Books with Mario Vargas Llosa: A Retrospective were previously presented in other forums, the work as a whole provides a refreshingly novel view of Vargas Llosa through his own commentaries on the “background material” of his literature and retrospective chapters of personal nature from some of the most renown critics of his extraordinary oeuvre. As clearly noted in the introduction from editors Raquel Chang-Rodríguez and Carlos Riobó: “The essays included in this collection are framed by Mario Vargas Llosa’s visits to the City College of New York (CCNY), the creation of the Cátedra Mario Vargas Llosa, or Mario Vargas Llosa Chair (2013) in his honor, and the interests of the Peruvian author in reading and books” (xi). Beginning with two lectures (in English translation) and a correspondence between Vargas Llosa and Alonso Cueto, the collection then follows with brief and powerfully personal essays from multiple scholars in sections titled “Life and Literature,” “History, Authority, and Ideology,” and “Other Tales.” The book concludes with contributor biographies and a useful index. Beyond the valued scholarship in these sections, recognition should also be given to multiple translators who produced clear, engaging English versions of the essays and speeches, which help make the work even more expansive in its reach. [End Page 508] Talking Books with Vargas Llosa is broad in its scope. Some of the chapters focus directly on specific novels, but most take a more panoramic approach. This expansive vision could be valuable for those new to Vargas Llosa’s writings, but it might also be overwhelming given the extent of “Vargas Llosa’s trajectory as a universal writer” (Armas Marcelo, chapter 5, p. 83). Dedicated Vargas Llosa scholars, I believe, will find the reading of this volume a joy. It provides a welcome break from a strictly academic tone by blending personal anecdote and literary insight. In chapter 3 (“From Miguel de Cervantes to César Moro: Mario Vargas Llosa and Alonso Cueto”), Cueto comments: “One of the lessons that Cervantes teaches us is the importance of a point of view, that is, that each person sees reality differently, from different angles, and therefore, all have their own particular version” (39). This collected volume is similar in function. Though not as cohesive as some volumes centered around specific themes or works, it provides intimate clues about Vargas Llosa and his lifework from varied yet complementary perspectives. What captured my attention most about Talking Books with Vargas Llosa was its personal nature. Starting with the first essay from Vargas Llosa himself on the background stories that ultimately led to the publication of Pantaleón y las vistadoras (1973) and concluding with the account from Robert Dumont recalling his interactions with Vargas Llosa at the New York Public Library, the content of this book is unique in presenting material of high scholarly interest but from an insider perspective. Indeed, the chapters contribute new analyses of Vargas Llosa’s works, but also add something more personal, often including real-life stories from individuals who know him well. I also sincerely appreciated that several essays specifically acknowledged Vargas Llosa’s extraordinary and underrecognized work as a literary critic and educator. Indeed, apart from analyzing his work as a writer, this volume “also allows us to discern Vargas Llosa’s tastes” as a critic-scholar (Chang-Rodríguez, chapter 11, p. 197). I conclude with the words of Vargas Llosa to Alonso Cueto: “Great novels not only grant us marvelous experiences that we would never have without reading them, but they also transform us internally” (41). As J. J. Armas Marcelo affirms in his essay of the same title, Vargas Llosa’s has certainly been “A Life Worthy

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