Mario Vargas Llosa: The Time of the Hero

I'm not sure if it is Llosa's subtlety as a writer, or my carelessness as a reader, but I labored through almost the entire book under a misconception. So gently does he blur the lines between the characters of the book, that it wasn't until the epilogue that I realized I had been fooled--or been foolish. I will need to revisit the book to answer this question for sure. Maybe he was perfectly clear that the first person narrated sections were about the Jaguar all along. He was clear enough that the third person-omniscient sections were about the Poet. I think it more likely that I was suckered in by some early references, and at the end, my mind was blown almost as violently as it was at the end of The Life of Pi. Underneath all that authorial magic, Llosa crafts a engaging narrative with likeable, memorable characters, and wraps it up satisfyingly, but not too satisfyingly. what more can one ask for in a novel?

BTD:30