Rating: 
Summary: A false paradise
Review:
At first glance, The Way To Paradise is a classic example of Mario Vargas Llosa's style: interesting and unusual characters, colorful settings, poetic prose. The book even uses Mr. Vargas Llosa's preferred device of switching between narratives in alternating chapters as he did with such great success in Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and The Feast of the Goat, among others.
But in the end, I think, the story falls well short of those other two wonderful books, for a variety of reasons that left me puzzled.
First, I'll add my name to the chorus of reviewers who were left confused by Mr. Vargas Llosa's decision to pepper his narrative with second-hand comments from the book's two main characters (especially with Flora Tristán, who seems to ask herself at least once every page something like "but you could not have known that, could you, Flora?").
More importantly, the style of alternating chapters between the story of Ms. Tristán, a 19th century social reformer, and her grandson Paul Gauguin, the painter, doesn't work nearly as well here as it does elsewhere. That is mostly because the two stories have very little to do with each other. Ms. Tristán and Mr. Gauguin were related -- though they never met each other -- but aside from a few passing and insignificant comments by Mr. Gauguin about his grandmother, one story line never crossed. Are you interested in the story of Ms. Tristán's epic battle to mobilize workers in France in the 1840s? Then read the odd-numbered chapters. Do you prefer the story of the famous painter of Tahiti and Tahitians around the turn of the 20th Century? Then skip the odd and read only the even-numbered installments.
The one common thread between the two narratives is hinted at in the title: in their own way, both Ms. Tristán and Mr. Gauguin spend their lives trying to reach a certain kind of paradise. In the case of the former, it's through trying to create a kind of workers' paradise in which women and laborers are protagonists. In the case of the latter, it is through fleeing the closed art world of Paris in the 1880s for the paradise of Tahiti, where Mr. Gauguin felt the savage and pure soul of mankind was still bare to see. But in the end, all both characters find is frustration and, of course, death.
Days after finishing the book, it is both characters' deaths that stick with me the most. Mr. Vargas Llosa describes their physical declines with horrible consistency. The biting and consuming gut pains that crippled Ms. Tristán upset my own stomach. And the periodic descriptions of the insects attracted to the foul-smelling puss dripping from Mr. Gauguin's syphilis sores more than once left a bitter scowl on my face.
Mr. Vargas Llosa does deserve kudos for the way he brings two distant and distinct historical characters to life, his second consecutive historical novel in which mounds of research make the actual history seem at once central and effortless. If you are a fan of Mr. Vargas Llosa's work, you'll no doubt find plenty to enjoy in The Way To Paradise. But to everyone else, I'd recommend one of the author's real top-shelf efforts. There are plenty to pick from.
Rating:
Summary: Paradise
Review: A book in the genre of "Agony and Ecstasy" and "Lust for Life", this part-fact and part-fiction story (or novel?) is based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin and that of his grandmother Flora Tristan.
The book's chapters alternate between the lives of Gaugin and Tristan trying to draw a common thread between their seemingly uncommon lives.
Though Gauguin is obviously better known of the 2 characters, Llosa's novel does well to bring to light the life and work of his illustrious socialist grandmother who devoted her life to the upliftment of the women.
Each of the two central characters (adventurers in their own sense) are searching for paradise - the grandmother by trying to change the world and the grandson by escaping from his world. The question the reader is forced to ask is "Did both of them discover their respective paradises?"
An extremely fast and engrossing read though it took me three chapters to figure out the writers style of writing (referring to the characters in second person) and his oscillation between the events in the lives of the two protagonists. As always, I am sure the original untranslated version made a better read than the translated-into-English version.
Rating:
Summary: Detail-Rich Rendering of Gauguin and His Grandmother
Review: After having been impressed with many new aspects of Gauguin's art in the beautifully curated new show now at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, I decided it would be interesting to learn more about Paul Gauguin's final years when he produced what I felt to be his best work. I hoped that The Way to Paradise would be helpful in this regard. I got more than I expected. The book is actually a novel based on the lives of two people, Flora Tristan, Gauguin's grandmother, as well as Gauguin. Each is told from the perspective of their final years, with flashback reflections. Chapters alternate looking at the two lives. At first, that seemed like a distraction. But later, the artistic design became clearer. Flora Tristan would not have approved of her grandson, and he comes across even less sympathetically than I expected in the context of his family heritage. Although I picked up details about Gauguin that I wanted to learn about the context for his final works, I learned a lot about a remarkable woman about whom I would like to learn more, his grandmother. Flora Tristan's life epitomizes the evils of the legal system and popular attitudes towards women in those waning decades before women began to earn equal rights. Because her parents' marriage was not a legal one, she could not inherit her father's wealth. Her husband was a brute who was not legally restrained after he committed many wrongs against her and her children . . . but only after he shot her. So she led much of her adult life like Jean Valjean, on the run from the laws which would have returned her and her children to the abuser. In the process, she developed a remarkable sensitivity to the downtrodden, including other women, slaves and industrial workers. She often dressed as a man to go places where women were not allowed or to pursue her goals of social reform. During a visit to England, she was encouraged by the Chartist movement to imagine a European-wide coalition of workers that would lead to reform. In pursuing her hopes for creating a better life on earth, she spent her final months while very ill recruiting workers for her union despite official resistance to her proselytizing. In one remarkable sequence, she traveled alone to Peru from France in hopes of gaining some of her father's estate. The book focuses on Gauguin's life from the time he first set out for Tahiti. You find out more about his interest in the native customs and his relationships with the people there than about his art. The story focuses on his physical and mental deterioration as syphilis ravaged his body. Despite warnings that he was infectious, he sought sexual gratification from a series of young women (and any other woman who would make herself available). He comes across as the worst sort of abuser, the sort his grandmother would have hated. His vision was of a primitive past that was more fundamental and pure than the present, to be found in expired Maori practices that he cannot contact. The contrast between the two lives is very powerful beginning around the middle of the book. Until then, I was often puzzled by why the book developed that way. I found two things to be unpleasant about reading the book. First, the author assumed that I knew a lot more about Gauguin's life than I did. So many of the early details were only revealed in flashbacks near the end of the book. They would have been much more interesting and relevant if portrayed much earlier. The flashbacks themselves were put in as extended ruminations about the past. As such, these flashbacks didn't work well in some cases. They made both characters seem overly introspective. Gauguin, in particular, struck me as someone who was probably not very introspective at all. Second, there is a lot of editorializing that comes in like an awkward third character. In most cases, the editorializing seems to add nothing to thoughts I had already had . . . such as how a married man acquired syphilis. I suspect that it would have worked better to have either skipped writing these sections or to have them develop as part of dialogue with another character. Here's an example: "The game of Paradise! You had yet to find that slippery place, Koki. Did it exist? Was it an illusion, a mirage?" The immense number of details about daily life of the two main characters is impressive. With those details, you feel closer to the characters than you could have imagined considering that they led much different lives than most of us do now. I was pleased to find that the book described the circumstances around the creation of many of the art works that I was most interested in. Unfortunately, the author doesn't seem to have the background in art to fully engage in describing the artistic processes that Gauguin used. Such a focus would have made the book much more appealing to me. So, despite my reservations, I do encourage you to read the book. When you finish, think about where you see the potential for paradise.
Rating: 
Summary: Sublime
Review: Excellent book, following the narrative style of "La fiesta del Chivo" but with a totally different topic, Vargas Llosa beautifully describes the thoughts and lives of two completely different minds but equally strong personalities (must be in their blood, as they are related): the painter Gauguin and his feminist/socialist grandmother Flora Tristan. And, if you like art, I think that Vargas Llosa makes a wonderful job describing the thoughts that originate some of Gauguin's paintings... it is just sublime. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: One of Vargas Llosa's Best
Review: I am great fan of Vargas Llosa, having read all his novels. While others have criticized his style, I find it works exceptionally well in this particular novel. The non-linearity of each of the protagonist's stories adds to a much fuller understanding of Koke and Flora. You appreciate each more after learning what choices they made to become who they are, when you already know them in their "prime". Unlike many other reviewers, I found Vargas Llosa's style of interjecting comments by the protagonists added an itimacy and immediacy to the stories.
And now to do my own research on Flora and Paul....
For any of you who have not read Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, it is perhaps his best and most enjoyable novel. Feast of the Goat also a great read. Though my personal favorite is The War at the End of the World, another historical novel, though about much more arcane subject.
Rating:
Summary: Vargas Llosa shows "The Way to Paradise"
Review: I had waited to read this book since hearing about it. I was not disappointed. Vargas Llosa is most masterful in describing the life of Flora Tristan, the little known early 19th century century women's and worker's rights activits. I hope this book will help renew interest in this fascinating woman. While the prose style of moving back and forth between Tristan and her grandson the painter Gauguin may appear difficult at first, it is materful in execution. Vargas Llosa has a brilliant manner in covering time, allowing for flashbacks to many important events in his main characters lives. Flora Tristan and Paul Gauguin each found "The Way to Paradise" in a unique way. I felt much more sympathy for Tristan, who faced numerous injustices and fought for a cause. Gauguin, while a brilliant artist, comes across as a bit crazed at the end. One does leave this work wondering more about Flora's daughter (and Gauguin's mother) Aline -- the one interconnecting person between these two. Reviews have not highlighted the fact that Vargas Llosa, who was born in Arequipa, Peru, is, as I understand, a descendant of one of Flora's Tristan uncles, though not the Uncle Pio, who played a crucial role in disinheriting Flora. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the personalities of these fascinating individuals. However, it is written as fiction, and I felt fortunate to have previously read portions of David Sweetman's brilliant biography "Paul Gauguin, A Complete Life", since it presented a factual context for both Flora and Gauguin's lives.
Rating:
Summary: TRULY DISAPPOINTING
Review: I love the works of Gauguin and was curious about his "workers rights" grandmother when reading a review of this book. But, it is very confusing at first due to Llosa's style of writing. There seems to be a narrator as well as the dialogue from the characters. I got used to it after a while, but didn't care for it at all. Very annoying. Some people have referred to this as second person writing and third person writing. Based on this style, I'll not read any other of Llosa's works. In spite of the lousy writing style, it was interesting to hear more about Gauguin's possible reasons for his use of color, images, locations, etc. And, his grandmother's story was worth hearing about.
Rating:
Summary: TRULY DISAPPOINTING
Review: I love the works of Gauguin and was curious about his "workers rights" grandmother when reading a review of this book. But, it is very confusing at first due to Llosa's style of writing. There seems to be a narrator as well as the dialogue from the characters. I got used to it after a while, but didn't care for it at all. Very annoying. Some people have referred to this as second person writing and third person writing. Based on this style, I'll not read any other of Llosa's works. In spite of the lousy writing style, it was interesting to hear more about Gauguin's possible reasons for his use of color, images, locations, etc. And, his grandmother's story was worth hearing about.
Rating:
Summary: Will The Real Gauguin Please Stand Up ...
Review: I remember as a young man reading The Moon and The Six Pence by Somerset Maugham and being intriged by the persona of Gauguin , and now Mario Vargas Llosa took me to another level of Gauguin's life and I am impressed by such a good novel , connecting Gauguin , Gauguin's grandmother , France , Peru and Tahiti with such finese and style . A book worth reading as history , social evolution and the Lost Paradise we look for in Religion ( Is Not There , Believe Me ) . By the way , if U want to know where Paradise went , read The Story of B , by Daniel Quinn . Enjoy and learn ....
Rating: 
Summary: The Struggle to Paradise
Review: If Mario Vargas Llosa had not lost the election to Alberto Fujimori in the late 1980s and had become president of Peru, it's interesting to imagine how that country would be faring today. What we do know is that the literary world would have missed this writer of intelligent, politically-influenced fiction. With "Feast of the Goat" and now with "The Way to Paradise," Vargas Llosa turns his astute gaze to Europe and the Pacific, and demonstrates that he can write masterfully about cultures and countries other than his own. In the new book he traces the life of painter Paul Gauguin and his grandmother, the socialist feminist Flora Tristan. Set in France and the South Pacific with a brief sojourn in Peru, he charts the courses of two related people who never knew each other, and whose lives were similar in that they found the conventions of their times impossible to live with. Flora Tristan grew up in poverty as the illegitimate daughter of a French mother and a Peruvian father. Her marriage was abusive and she escaped her husband to reinvent herself as a popular writer and campaigner for workers' rights. Despite failing health, she tours the small towns of France recruiting members for her Workers' Union. Her grandson Paul abandons his large family and friendship with other painters to escape to Tahiti to paint. Riddled with syphilis, his health is failing as well. Natasha Wimmer's translation is excellent. There are scenes that glow with the golden light of Arles or sting with the scent of the sea. Where "Paradise" misses the mark is through an irritating literary device where rhetorical questions or comments are made of the characters in the second person: "Was it because of the woman in Panama that your vision was weakened, your heart was failing, and your legs were covered with pustules?" or: "You would later remember those two hours of absurd debate, Florita." You get the idea. It adds nothing to the narrative and is a jarringly false step from such a sure-footed writer.
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