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A review by daryasilman
Похождения скверной девчонки by Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa, Марио Варгас Льоса
4.0
Title in English: The Bad Girl (in other languages, it's 'The Mischief of the Bad Girl').
If the term 'classics' is put before specifying a book's genre like romance, sci-fi, or dystopia, then you have a 99% of guarantee of the high-quality romance, sci-fi, or dystopia. First and foremost, The Bad Girl belongs to a mystical caste of classical literature from a Nobel Prize winner of 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa. Secondly, it's a grandiose romantic novel spanning 40 years and focusing on two characters, Ricardo Somorcusio and the Bad Girl, a girl from the bottom of society whose sole life purpose is becoming rich. Ricardo loves the girl, but she doesn't love him (or loves him in her selfish ways) - that's what readers get after going through more than 500 pages. The novel's uniqueness lies in the lack of characters' development: they stay static and unmovable, not changed by side personages or interpersonal encounters. To keep the reader interested, the novelist lures readers into believing that the couple's dynamic is ready to reconstruct, yet that reconstruction never comes.
The political, societal, and economic developments of the 1940-1980s serve as a background for the romance. The main hero, and readers after him, dive into Peruvian politics, Parisian cultural aspirations, the rise of hippie culture in London, and many more events that shaped that era. The descriptions don't look labored. They feel natural, learned not from papers but from real life (a feature overlooked in our age of Google). And the erotic descriptions! Latino-American authors usually depict intimate moments so precisely and elegantly that vulgarity is impossible. For example, in 'Ada,' Vladimir Nabokov had to use allegories to speak about genitals and love-making. Mario Vargas Llosa doesn't hide behind flowery words: he names the women's parts one by one without any embarrassment, and the erotic moments feel like an integral part of the relationship.
I took one star from my rating because of the abovementioned 'moments of clarity,' because of my futile hopes that, as in modern novels, there will be an unexpected, unforeseen plot twist. It turns out that a story with static characters can also be an exciting read.
If the term 'classics' is put before specifying a book's genre like romance, sci-fi, or dystopia, then you have a 99% of guarantee of the high-quality romance, sci-fi, or dystopia. First and foremost, The Bad Girl belongs to a mystical caste of classical literature from a Nobel Prize winner of 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa. Secondly, it's a grandiose romantic novel spanning 40 years and focusing on two characters, Ricardo Somorcusio and the Bad Girl, a girl from the bottom of society whose sole life purpose is becoming rich. Ricardo loves the girl, but she doesn't love him (or loves him in her selfish ways) - that's what readers get after going through more than 500 pages. The novel's uniqueness lies in the lack of characters' development: they stay static and unmovable, not changed by side personages or interpersonal encounters. To keep the reader interested, the novelist lures readers into believing that the couple's dynamic is ready to reconstruct, yet that reconstruction never comes.
The political, societal, and economic developments of the 1940-1980s serve as a background for the romance. The main hero, and readers after him, dive into Peruvian politics, Parisian cultural aspirations, the rise of hippie culture in London, and many more events that shaped that era. The descriptions don't look labored. They feel natural, learned not from papers but from real life (a feature overlooked in our age of Google). And the erotic descriptions! Latino-American authors usually depict intimate moments so precisely and elegantly that vulgarity is impossible. For example, in 'Ada,' Vladimir Nabokov had to use allegories to speak about genitals and love-making. Mario Vargas Llosa doesn't hide behind flowery words: he names the women's parts one by one without any embarrassment, and the erotic moments feel like an integral part of the relationship.
I took one star from my rating because of the abovementioned 'moments of clarity,' because of my futile hopes that, as in modern novels, there will be an unexpected, unforeseen plot twist. It turns out that a story with static characters can also be an exciting read.