Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow.
This was an excellent book. I loved both paths of the story, one of which was multi-pronged, since we followed the fraying threads of Don Pedro Camacho’s serials about men in their fifties, the prime of their life, with their aquiline noses. The serials and the reactions of the public we see to them in Marito’s story as he tries to navigate his love affair with his newly divorced Aunt Julia are a ton of (gruesome) fun as Don Pedro begins his long, slow mental decline.
As the serials implode (almost literally) Mario and Julia’s story takes on the aspect of one of Don Pedro’s own creations and you almost forget that you’re in the real world chapters when things escalate with Mario’s parents towards the end.
Makes me want to run out and get more of Llosa’s stuff.