Nobel-Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa has been described as “a literary colossus”. He might well be, but certainly not on the merits of The Neighbourhood. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that that this 2016 novel is badly written. But, certainly, I expected better from one of the biggest names in South American fiction.

In essence, The Neighbourhood is a crime thriller set in 1990s Peru, against the backdrop of the Fujimori regime. It is a time of political unrest. Kidnappings and violent terrorist attacks, curfews and blackouts are the order of the day. Despite these “inconveniences”, industrialist Enrique, his bosom friend (and legal advisor) Luciano, and their respective wives Marisa and Chabelo, lead a privileged existence, waited upon by maids and servants, enjoying parties and the occasional trip to Miami. Things go awry when a sleazy journalist Rolando Garro blackmails Enrique with some compromising photographs. This is just the start of Enrique’s troubles. When Garro is found dead, Enrique becomes a suspect in a tangled skein which will have implications up to the highest echelons of Peruvian power, reaching Fujimori himself (and giving Vargas Llosa, Fujimori’s real-life political rival, the opportunity for sweet, literary revenge).

The story is enjoyable enough and Vargas Llosa occasionally spices it up with some stylistic experiments – such as a chapter written in the form of an interview, and another in which, like a frenzied film director, the third person narrator jumps from one scene/character to another in a feverish vortex. But at the end of it all, the novel feels shallow, much like the vacuous, cringe-worthy dialogue between the book’s “star couples”.

And then there’s the sex. Marisa and Chabela, who identify themselves as heterosexual, suddenly discover a physical desire for each other and, later in the novel, a passion for threesomes. OK, I get the point about this aspect of the novel standing for the dishonesty, cheating and secrecy which taint all the characters. However, the voyeuristic sex scenes, radical as they might have been, say, forty years ago, now come across as, at best, unnecessary and, at worst, disturbingly like a prurient male fantasy.

I have read some great translations by veteran Edith Grossman, and I’m sure she does a great job here – this is not enough, however, to assuage my sense of disappointment at this novel.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-neighbourhood-by-mario-vargas-llo... ( )

«La idea de esta novela comenzó con una imagen de dos señoras amigas que de pronto una noche, de una manera impensada para ambas, viven una situación erótica. Luego se fue convirtiendo en una historia policial, casi un thriller, y el thriller se fue transformando en una especie de mural de la sociedad peruana en los últimos meses o semanas de la dictadura de Fujimori y Montesinos. Me gustó la idea de que la historia se llamase Cinco esquinas como un barrio que, de alguna manera, es emblemático de Lima, de Perú y también de la época en la que está situada la historia.

La dictadura de Fujimori utilizó el periodismo amarillo, el periodismo de escándalo, como un arma política para desprestigiar y aniquilar moralmente a todos sus adversarios. Al mismo tiempo, también está la otra cara, cómo el periodismo, que puede ser algo vil y sucio, puede convertirse de pronto en un instrumento de liberación, de defensa moral y cívica de una sociedad. Esas dos caras del periodismo son uno de los temas centrales de Cinco esquinas.»

Mario Vargas Llosa

Llosa is edging towards becoming my favorite author... This definitely helped. A wonderful exploration of the fragility of power, the hypocrisy of conservatives, and most of all- a very different and damning description of life under the Fujimori government. ( )

Nobel-Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa has been described as “a literary colossus”. He might well be, but certainly not on the merits of The Neighbourhood. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that that this 2016 novel is badly written. But, certainly, I expected better from one of the biggest names in South American fiction.

In essence, The Neighbourhood is a crime thriller set in 1990s Peru, against the backdrop of the Fujimori regime. It is a time of political unrest. Kidnappings and violent terrorist attacks, curfews and blackouts are the order of the day. Despite these “inconveniences”, industrialist Enrique, his bosom friend (and legal advisor) Luciano, and their respective wives Marisa and Chabelo, lead a privileged existence, waited upon by maids and servants, enjoying parties and the occasional trip to Miami. Things go awry when a sleazy journalist Rolando Garro blackmails Enrique with some compromising photographs. This is just the start of Enrique’s troubles. When Garro is found dead, Enrique becomes a suspect in a tangled skein which will have implications up to the highest echelons of Peruvian power, reaching Fujimori himself (and giving Vargas Llosa, Fujimori’s real-life political rival, the opportunity for sweet, literary revenge).

The story is enjoyable enough and Vargas Llosa occasionally spices it up with some stylistic experiments – such as a chapter written in the form of an interview, and another in which, like a frenzied film director, the third person narrator jumps from one scene/character to another in a feverish vortex. But at the end of it all, the novel feels shallow, much like the vacuous, cringe-worthy dialogue between the book’s “star couples”.

And then there’s the sex. Marisa and Chabela, who identify themselves as heterosexual, suddenly discover a physical desire for each other and, later in the novel, a passion for threesomes. OK, I get the point about this aspect of the novel standing for the dishonesty, cheating and secrecy which taint all the characters. However, the voyeuristic sex scenes, radical as they might have been, say, forty years ago, now come across as, at best, unnecessary and, at worst, disturbingly like a prurient male fantasy.

I have read some great translations by veteran Edith Grossman, and I’m sure she does a great job here – this is not enough, however, to assuage my sense of disappointment at this novel.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-neighbourhood-by-mario-vargas-llo... ( )

I expected more from Vargas Llosa but this is a failed effort. I have liked his books for a long time but this one is not up to par. The Feast of the Goat and The War of The End of the World are my favorites. Which is why this one is a disappointment. The characters are one-note, one-dimensional. The chapters are repetitive and voyeuristic. More on the context of Peru during the late years of the Fujimori regime, and more on the doings of infamous Vladimiro Montesinos, along with doings of the Shining Path and MRTA would have added some dimensions and depth. Instead, it's mostly rich people complaining about how tiresome the curfew, and terrorism, and kidnappings are. Give this one a hard pass. ( )