Vargas Llosa

Novelists, by the nature of their art, quite often have an interest in the outside world. There can't be very many, however, who have the range or the public confidence of Mario Vargas Llosa. This absorbing and sober collection of the Peruvian novelist's recent essays displays a writer who, above all, seems like an adult - with an adult's attentiveness, whatever his subject.
He says at one point that the career he most envies is that of the Frenchman André Malraux - novelist, pornographer, speculator, conspirator, adventurer, hero of the Resistance and politician. Vargas Llosa doesn't quite approach that range, but he is, it's worth remembering, probably one of the few living writers of major stature to have had a serious stab at a political career. He narrowly lost the election for the presidency of Peru to Alberto Fujimori in 1990, and has maintained an interest in public life which goes, in quality, far beyond the standard contribution of the literati.
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Very few of the comments made by writers in the wake of September 11 now bear re-reading. Vargas Llosa's short piece, written only 20 days later, is a remarkably perspicacious contribution, pointing out that "the greatest damage... will be the erosion of the culture of freedom in the democratic countries themselves". Vargas Llosa saw at once that the "war against terror" would be used to restrict freedoms; something which most people have only slowly come to realise.
A long "Iraq Diary", recording a visit of not quite two weeks, is a first-rate piece of the higher journalism, recording impressions with good humour and considerable energy. Its insights are often startling, and come from a man who has deeply considered the meaning of the political terms we bandy about unthinkingly; "Iraq is the freest country in the world, but since freedom without order and without law is tantamount to chaos, it is also the most dangerousNovelists, by the nature of their art, quite often have an interest in the outside world. There can't be very many, however, who have the range or the public confidence of Mario Vargas Llosa. This absorbing and sober collection of the Peruvian novelist's recent essays displays a writer who, above all, seems like an adult - with an adult's attentiveness, whatever his subject.
He says at one point that the career he most envies is that of the Frenchman André Malraux - novelist, pornographer, speculator, conspirator, adventurer, hero of the Resistance and politician. Vargas Llosa doesn't quite approach that range, but he is, it's worth remembering, probably one of the few living writers of major stature to have had a serious stab at a political career. He narrowly lost the election for the presidency of Peru to Alberto Fujimori in 1990, and has maintained an interest in public life which goes, in quality, far beyond the standard contribution of the literati.
advertisement
Very few of the comments made by writers in the wake of September 11 now bear re-reading. Vargas Llosa's short piece, written only 20 days later, is a remarkably perspicacious contribution, pointing out that "the greatest damage... will be the erosion of the culture of freedom in the democratic countries themselves". Vargas Llosa saw at once that the "war against terror" would be used to restrict freedoms; something which most people have only slowly come to realise.
A long "Iraq Diary", recording a visit of not quite two weeks, is a first-rate piece of the higher journalism, recording impressions with good humour and considerable energy. Its insights are often startling, and come from a man who has deeply considered the meaning of the political terms we bandy about unthinkingly; "Iraq is the freest country in the world, but since freedom without order and without law is tantamount to chaos, it is also the most dangerous