Wednesday 11 July 2012

7 GREAT HISPANIC NOVELS


Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa
The world of radio drama and an unusual loving relationship are two of the cornerstones of this novel. Its flexible structure is open to interpolated funny stories. Based on the author's real life experience, this novel combines a picture of Lima in the 1950s, and an examination of both the practical and creative aspects of writing.

The Vortex, José Eustasio Rivera
Trying to escape their problems, Arturo Cova and his mistress Alicia venture into the Colombian jungle. They start an initiation trip through the virgin rainforest, a hostile milieu masterfully depicted in the novel. The author had taken part in an expedition that denounced violence against Indians in rubber exploitation.

El señor Presidente (Mister President), Miguel Ángel Asturias
The echoes of the first European avant-garde can be seen in the narrative techniques employed in this novel, in which a dictatorship continues its grip on Guatemala through violence and cruelty.  A love story provides a counterweight to human degradation, while a whole country wonders what the next step is.

The Kingdom of this World, Alejo Carpentier
The slave rebellion in Haiti and mentalities in contrast are the subjects of this novel, whose baroque prose is one of the greatest achievements of the Latin American novel. The presence of Voodoo and the circularity of time help shape this narrative.

Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo
At the beginning of this book, two characters move along a dreamlike landscape. It is a symbolic, invented place, a peculiar hell where shadows of the dead feed on old feelings and hate. Later the reader realizes that they are only some of the sleepless ghosts that live in Comala.

Broad and Alien is the World, Ciro Alegría
Peruvian Indian groups are deprived of their lands and natural wealth, with the acquiescence of the authorities and the passivity and idleness of a local scholar. Classical narrative techniques are used in this book that focuses on the dehumanization of life.

A World for Julius, Alfredo Bryce Echenique
The lives and doings of an influential, aristocratic Peruvian family are the starting point of a novel of satire and social criticism. The author shows Julius’s expanding world and the decline of his family. A warm, tender and incisive portrait.