A particularly mandarin performance by Vargas Llosa this time out,
art- and sex-imbued, with color reproductions of paintings that set
the tonal ranges of the chapters. Alfonso is a Lima high-school
boy, the son of a wealthy sensualist, Don Rigoberto, and the
stepson of Rigoberto's new wife Lucrecia. The married couple have a
blissful sex life, into which Alfonso intrudes a seemingly
innocent, angelic, but hormonally charged presence the likes of
which Lucrecia finally can not resist. The book's denouement is
very French, tartly cynical. But Vargas Llosa spends the real
wealth of his prose - some of it spectacularly distilled, some a
bit goopy, all superbly translated by Lane - in a serrated group of
meditations. These either are on the paintings referred to (Don
Rigoberto and his wife assume different personae in their love play
- thus the figures in the paintings) or on the art-body nexus:
Rigoberto's pre-sex ablutions are a homage to the body as
perfection. The Laclos-like ending throws a cloud of doubt over the
jeweled celebration of art and sex, and thus gives the book a
welcome echo of psychological ambivalence. But readers will find
themselves more intrigued by the silkiness of Vargas Llosa's
control (in this respect, he has become Calvino's heir), by the
suavity of his allegorical turn of mind. (Kirkus Reviews)
In Praise of the Stepmother is the story of Don Rigoberto, his
second wife, Lucrecia, and his son, Alfonso. Their family life
together seems to be a happy one. Rigoberto, an insurance company
manager, spends his time preening himself for his wife and
collecting erotic art. But while Lucrecia is devoted to him, she
has her own needs, and soon finds herself the object of young
Alfonso's attention. With meticulous observation and seductive
skill, Mario Vargas Llosa explores the mysterious nature of
happiness. Little by little, the harmony of his characters is
darkened by the shadow of perversion. If you enjoyed In Praise of
the Stepmother, you might also like Mario Vargas Llosa's The
Notebooks of Don Rigoberto.
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