Customer Reviews

Death in the Andes

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3 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Death in the Andes is a story of brutality and fear and ignorance. The language is often coarse and vulgar. The ending is especially disturbing. Were it not for the remarkable writing of Mario Vargas Llosa, I might have put this unsettling story aside. But Mario Vargas Llosa is a captivating story teller and I found myself wanting to know more and more about his characters that inhabit the harsh mountains of Peru.

The reader encounters alternating viewpoints and layered conversations that intermingle the present and the past, forcing the reader to remain alert. Death in the Andes is structurally a mystery story in which two soldiers assigned to a barren outpost investigate the disappearance of three men. The brutal Shining Path terrorists (the Senderistas) are the natural suspect, but Corporal Lituma also mistrusts both the townspeople (largely traditional Indians) and the construction work crew building a highway across the mountains. Initially, he has little patience for talk of the pishtacos, vampire-like humans that sucked the blood and ate the melted the fat of their victims.

There are stories within stories. Young French tourists are stoned to death, rather than shot, to save bullets, and to permit others to take part in the killing. In fascination we listen to a lonely young man describe his improbable love of a prostitute. We witness a village turning upon itself and selecting victims for the Senderistas. We meet an aged, repulsive woman who in her youth helped kill a pishtacos. We gain a nebulous understanding as to why Peruvians and foreigners involved in re-forestation programs and nature preserves become prime targets for assassination.

I have already begun to read Death in the Andes again and I am searching for more writings by Mario Vargas Llosa. Although I found his portrait of contemporary Peru to be unsettling, disturbing, and haunting, Death in the Andes will appeal to the reader on many levels. It is a memorable lesson in history, in cultural conflict, and in man's inhumanity.

In Death in the Andes, Vargas Llosa weaves a tale that is neither simple nor pat. He reveals truths about human nature: their complexities and frailities in stressful circumstances. People alone in the mountains; people who have lost hope turn to beliefs as old as those same hills and become something horrible. They turn on their neighbors and kill them at the behest of people all too willing to use them for their own ends. The terrucos, serruchos, apus, and pishtacos which liter his story surround the reader in a vast world one cannot explain away as being the rantings of mountain people. Vargas Llosa places the reader into this mysterious world, and it is not always a comfortable one. The Shining Path scenes in this book are, in themselves, enough to make one turn away. But it is worth the read, as simply a lever to pry open that world which I can never really know, even though I've pedaled a bike in the backcountry, and had people yell that I was a "pishtaco" or one who steals the flesh from another to sell, I am not of Peru. Vargas Llosa took me as far I could ever go.

Mario Vargas Llosa does an excellent job in capturing many of the dilemnas and controversies which face modern Peru in "Death in the Andes". He does an masterful job in presenting the military, insurgents, (Sendero Luminoso), and also the native peasants and farmers of the country. The reader really feels the emotions and experiences of the characters in the story. The violence, brutality and pain of life of many in Peru comes across clearly in this tale. Vargas Llosa weaves the narratives of three characters and also experiments with shifting between different periods of time during the course of the novel. His writing style in this work is very straightforward and clear. The book reads quite quickly and easily. If one enjoys the work of Gabriel García Márquez or a great story in general, they will enjoy "Death in the Andes".

DEATH IN THE ANDES is a suspenseful and explosive story about the political and social landscape of Peru in the 1990's. Corporal Lituma and his deputy Tomas are assigned to a remote area of the Andes to oversee a road crew. When three men are reported missing, everyone becomes edgy. Lituma sets out to solve the mystery, but soon finds himself overrun with more questions than answers.

Told in a mosaic of voices, from Lituma to two hapless French tourists to the proprietor of the local cantina, the real mystery is the Peruvian people and their survival in the harsh terrain of the Andes amid guerrillas, poverty, political uncertainty, and superstition. Llosa delivers this story with an unflinching honesty that will keep you turning pages, horrified and yet unable to turn away.

I read "Death in the Andes"(Lituma en los Andes) a novella written by the peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, three years ago when it just came out in spanish. I don't remember the details very well of this story about how the peruvian terrorist group Sendero Luminoso(Shining Path) affects deeply the lives of a heterogeneous group of people:Tourists, white people, incas, rich people, poor people, even a witch. But the feeling that I had after reading it is still in me. That feeling of desolation, of terror,the coldness of the mountain, the humidity of the land, and above all, the eternal waiting for something horrible to happen. Like living with a Damocles sword over your head. As you might well know, in good literature, it isn't only the details that counts.

It's a scary world out there, but it's worth knowing about it. Llosa painted it in new colours which I didn't even know existed. On ever page I waited to be killed, and by the middle I wasn't affriad of death. What a book!

The protagonists are two civil guards alone in a small mining town threatened by guerrillas, and the loss of work. The town is the home of a couple with a Dionysian bent, and an apparent belief in rituals over a 1000 years old. Plot lines include the disappearance of 3 people, the past infatuation of one of the guards, and the guerrilla movement. What the book is really about is the poverty and degradation of the people, and the apparent hopelessness. Vargas writes about this obliquely, so as not to overwhelm the reader, while getting the point across. While I liked the book, I didn't fully appreciate the Dinonysian aspect, I guess, which was a major drawback for me. Vargas uses an interesting technique of seamlessly switching between voice and time, and back, without confusing the reader.

This is the first book I have read by the author in particular, and of Peru in General. While the book is full of amazing insights into Peruvian culture, I could not help seeing that the almost unlimited potential for violence described here is universal, and applies where ever human beings are assembled.
The peasants of the Andes are in constant fear for their lives, either by starvation, in the hands of the rebels, the government or the evil spirits.
Their ancient traditions, which kept their lives tolerable in past times, are disintigrated, leaving them drunk and desperate.
Just like peasants and poor people almost everywhere, they are helpless and have no control what so ever about their destiny. From this condition, emerges violence that is at first shocking, and then, as the book progresses, looses some of its initial horror and becomes almost acceptable.
This book is highly recommended, although it may be noted that people with weak stomachs may not be able to handle it.

I just purchased this again since I always seem to give my copy to friends. But I don't mind that this is the 4th or 5th time that I've ended up buying it for someone else.

Vargas Llosa is able to weave plotlines and timelines with such a light touch that at times you have to pay attention closely or you'll miss the transition. That he is able to combine so many interesting elements from a terrible crime story and the mystery unraveling before the inspectors and how that all ties to elements seemingly intrinsic to the nature of the region is quite a feat. That he combines so many seemingly irrelevant elements into an amazing tale of murder, investigation, poverty, politics, love, longing and loss while making the experience UNIQUELY Peruvian is a singular talent.

In my humble opinion, this is Vargas Llosa's best work, which is saying something.

As a work of fiction, I found this book to be incredibly enjoyable to read. I love the mixture of horror and comedy in the book. It shows two totally different aspects of human beings which is what life is really like.

My one caveat about the book is that the author may lead one to believe that all the horrors in Peru were caused by the Shinning Path rebels. However, international groups estimate at least half of the deaths were caused by the government and other right wing paramilitary groups. This aspect of Peru's history is absent here.