Cheap Making Waves (Book) (Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa, John King) Price

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Customer Reviews of Making Waves

The topics vary, and cover everything from the "bad" films of Luis Bunuel to the fading legacy of Che Guevara. In fact, there seems to be an even split here between literary and political themes. I loved, for example, reading a Latin American perspective on the works of David Mamet.

I also enjoyed "Nicaragua at a Crossroads." His description of the capital city is amusing, heartbreaking and gives you a sense that the people of Managua live in a truly surreal world. No writer of magic realism could ever imagine a stranger form of urban chaos than the one depicted in this essay.

"Making Waves" is a brilliant collection -- one that ranks with Umberto Eco's "Travels in Hyperreality" or Octavio Paz's "Labyrinth of Solitude."

Witty and intelligent random musings
Mario Vargas Llosa is often overshadowed by the more famous Spanish writers such as Garcia Marquez and Fuentes. However, he deserves his place among them and may perhaps be better. "Making Waves" displays the writer's usual quick wit and sarcasm as he muses over everything from Peru's Shining Path to Hemingway to Rastafari to Che. It's a collection of essays spanning many decades, and often they are merely his take on a particular social, political, or literary trend. The book makes for enjoyable reading in bits and pieces. A highly intelligent work!

An excellent essay collection by the great Peruvian writer
"Making Waves," by Mario Vargas Llosa, brings together more than 40 essays by this great writer from Peru. The book has been edited by John King, who also translated these essays into English. Vargas writes about politics, literature, popular culture, the writer's vocation, and other topics. His moods vary greatly throughout the book: outraged, annoyed, sentimental, exasperated, and enthralled.

The book is filled with fascinating insights and memories. It is fascinating, for example, to read how Vargas Llosa's first novel was burned and denounced. He frequently attacks Cuban leader Fidel Castro. One of the best selections, "The Story of a Massacre," tells of the tragic slaying of a group of journalists; this piece takes us into the worlds of the Shining Path guerrillas and the Iquichano Indians.

Another excellent selection is "My Son the Rastafarian," about his son's conversion to the Rastafarian religion while staying at an English school. Many of Vargas Llosa's essays explore the lives and work of other writers: William Faulkner, Doris Lessing, Julio Cortazar, Ernest Hemingway, and others. And there are a few weird surprises, like his essay on Lorena Bobbitt, the woman who cut off her husband's penis.

In an essay on Hemingway, Mario Vargas Llosa writes, "The condition of the writer is strange and paradoxical." He adds that the writer needs to "feed the beast within which enslaves him." Vargas Llosa has been feeding his own "beast" for a long time now, and the world is a richer place because of this. I highly recommend "Making Waves" to all interested in contemporary literature and politics.