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Summary: feels like you're trying to catch your breath in the Andes
Review: Death in the Andes is a haunting book about the violent civil upheaval in Peru. I couldn't shake bad dreams about Pishtacos weeks after I read the book because of its' closeness to reality. Despite this, I recommend it. It reads like anthropology and history as it elucidates religious beliefs, politics, and viewpoints from different groups of people in Peru.
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Summary: Structurally a Mystery Story - Captivating and Memorable
Review: 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.
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Summary: An unsettling and unforgettable novel
Review: 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.
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Summary: not very organized
Review: i like writing books of south american writers, but this one is not very organized, story is some parts very strong but then weak in other parts.The author has tried to give a super natural taste to that , but i think he could abbreviate the book a lot
any way what is the problem with sexuality in south america , seems that it is a big issue there.
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Summary: A great read
Review: I love the way Vargas Llosa interweaves several narratives into one cohesive work. I found Lituma's injection into Carreno's love story bothersome--his comments were arrogant and unneeded. Perhaps it added to his characterization, but it took away from the love story. The love story is predictable, but beautifully written. The rest of the book is unsettling and full of suspense. Overall a worthwhile read.
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Summary: Under the Sword of Sendero Luminoso.
Review: 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.
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Summary: frightening
Review: In an effort to learn more about Peru before a trip, I bought this book: BAD IDEA. From the tourists who are taken off a bus by Shining Path guerrillas and stoned to death, to the descriptions of various human sacrifices to ward off the devil, this is not a travel book. Then again, it shouldn't be classified as one. With dialogue that is occasionally reminiscent of Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, this is a surreal portrait of Peru - beautiful and yet horrifying.
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Summary: As mysterious as the Andes themselves...
Review: 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.
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Summary: Opens a new world!
Review: 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!
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Summary: Lituma of the Andes (Spanish title)
Review: Llosa moves the novel along in two ways; first through the core of the novel, the investigation of the missing men and through the interactions of the two investigators. The governmental instability constantly looms over the two, and somethimes it is easily forgotten. This all kept me intrigued, from the intensity of the rebels to the juxtapositions of the investigators. His characterizations and the interactions are incredible, and one can even see this book as a political allegory. There are, however, many incidents that Llosa's style is so vibid and I wished he wasn't as good a writer as he is. Due to my schedule I had to read the novel in pieces but if I can I would love to have read it in tighter sittings. I gave it a four because he mentions some points that didn't translate well, although his use of symbolism and deception is excellent. A very good read.
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