Customer Reviews

The Time of the Hero: A Novel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I rate this book 10, because it embodies in one text a story so powerful from a personal and political point of view. The story deals with a group of army cadets in Lima, their pasts and their presents, and what will potentially be a future shaped for them by the serious injury of one of their troop while on army manouvers.
The story that unfolds from this, interwoven with the power struggle that goes on between the forces of good and humanity and evil faceless silence of the army leaves you breathless. Not everyone will appreciate this book, but there are those out there that owe it to themselves to read this book and learn. Not just about peruvians themselves, but the deep forces of power, ruthlessness and betrayal that power the human race itself

A novel which provides shifting perspectives and which moves back and forth in time and which moves easily from third to first person and in so doing manages to accumulate an engrossing look at adolescents and their experiences in the military. But it also manages to show the side of the officers in charge with intelligence and understanding. A major theme is the individual conscience in collision with the institution, and the individual faced with the imperatives of the group. The cadet training institution is a dumping ground for adolescents who are fed, clothed and "disciplined" and the novel examines their experiences especially ways in which they manage to create their own society within the structure much as in prisons. THe novel is especially strong in depicting the idealism of youth and their groping towards first love. Although cynical at times - rules are for subordinates not superiors one Lt is told (p382) it does end with an overall feeling of hope. A Mosaic of life in Peru in the 1950's which might be paralleled in many other cultures.

I've now read several of Vargas Llosa's novels and I am a HUGE fan, actually, but this particular novel didn't strike me in quite the same way. It is an earlier novel than most of the others that I have read by him--this is a schoolboy/military academy novel that Vargas Llosa wrote during the Latin American Boom in Literature. Imagine "A Separate Peace" set in a Latin American Military Academy, in fact. (Except that it is also written in the less traditional, non-chronological narrative format favored by many of the Boom writers, who were all admirers of Modernists such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and William Faulkner.)

There really isn't any particular reason that I can pinpoint that I enjoyed it somewhat less than the other novels that I have read by Vargas Llosa--and I would recommend it to other readers. The way that the non-chronological narrative veils certain things about the story might frustrate some readers, but others might find that very element of the novel to be an intriguing selling point. Especially if you're interested in Vargas Llosa, the Latin American Boom, or Latin American literature in general, this is a must read, despite my own personal preference for some of his other novels.

(I would highly recommend "Death in the Andes," "The Storyteller" and "The Feast of the Goat," all by Vargas Llosa, as well as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.)

The Time of the Hero is one of the best books of our time, and ideal for The American Scholar. Llosa's writing style incorporates insights about life, war, love, fraternity, and humanity in a characteristically intelligent way. The subject matter is both informative and universal, and the presentation is unique and intellectually appealing. The book is multi-faceted, layered, and intriguing. Unfortunately, the translation takes so much away from the story. It is necessary to either read the book in the original Spanish, entitled La Ciudad y los perros, or read it with a grain of salt, always trying to read the language not as it appears on the page, but as Llosa wrote it.

The first one third of this book is not an easy read. The narrative is chaotic, heavy with characters and they come at you fast. A scorecard would be helpful. The narrative frequently switches between first and third person. Vargas Llosa is also fond of long, long paragraphs. Chapter three of part one totals 22 pages divided into six paragraphs! If the reader can only persevere however, this chaos gives way to light and insight at the end.

The setting of this story is a military boarding school for adolescent boys. We learn that many of these boys wound up at Leoncio Prado Military Academy because they were delinquents in need of discipline or, conversely, wimpy boys whose parents thought they needed to be toughened up. Academic standards at Leoncio are obviously lax and there is an egregious lack of discipline and supervision within the cadet barracks. These adolescent males engage in all manner of prohibited vice including cheating, smoking, drinking, stealing, going absent without leave, and pornography. Most appalling is the bullying and victimization of the weak by the strong. In fact, the first third of the book is given to detailed descriptions of two broad categories of adolescent diversions or perversions: machismo and masturbation. In common with other institutionalized environments a social stratification falls into place, a pecking order develops, and the weak are victimized mercilessly. Early on the newcomers form a clan for mutual protection from hazing by the upper class cadets and this clan itself evolves to terrorize others.

By the time I finished the first third of the book all I really knew of the main protagonist, Alberto, is that his mother was passive-aggressive but mostly submissive and his father was abusive. I nearly closed the book and put it away at the one third mark because I didn't really care and wasn't really interested in this mixed-up kid. But I plowed on out of curiosity. Curious as to where this tale was heading------------something needed to happen to break up the tedious dark lives of these young degenerates and I was especially hungry for some analysis or insight into why they acted out like this. Vargas Llosa delivered, all in due time.

Fortunately for me I didn't give up. In the final two thirds of the book the characters were fleshed out, the fog lifted and I didn't want to put the book down, it just kept getting better. When the brutality in the barracks climaxes in a murder on the training grounds the apathetic administration is forced into action. Without spoiling the plot I can say that Vargas Llosa utilizes the principals involved in the crime and ensuing cover up to give us glimpses into their consciences and a look at the rationalizations they employ to justify what they have done or failed to do. We are handed insights into the meaning of compassion, courage, loneliness, selfishness, selflessness, and honor. Some of these lessons conform to our own experiences and some will be revelatory. Especially fascinating is an innocent girl, fancied by three of the cadets, who orbits in and out of the story line; her gravity affecting multiple characters and indirectly providing energy to move major events. She truly is free of malice and unaware of her power and its tragic consequences. For every action there is indeed a reaction and this invites us to ponder our own real life effects on others.

The larger lesson I will continue to ponder is the paradox of the code of silence. The code is ultimately both futile and vitally necessary for the integrity and order of the unit. Those caught up in the murder-cover up are damaged whether they adhere to the code or turn out to be squealers. Interestingly, the cadets who are not directly involved as the drama plays out are strengthened as a unit even as the principals are sacrificed by their adherence to or violation of the code of silence.

The time of the hero is a barely comprehensible piece of trash. It's only semi-coherent, and that only sometimes. It's nearly impossible to tell one character from another. The story is pointlessly vile and utterly devoid of any worth. If your teacher has assigned you this book I pity you.

This is not the best of Vargas' books. Death in the Andes is definitely better. However, this is not to say that Time of the Hero is not interesting. The first 50 pages are so are a little boring, but after that, the plots really starts moving. Read carefully. Some plots go nowhere, some are everything. By the end, you really care about the central characters, which is the sign of a good book.