The Discreet Hero

Starred review from November 3, 2014
Nobel laureate Llosa (The Feast of the Goat) returns to smalltown Peru in this lyrical and witty new novel. The story revolves around two men: Felicíto Yanaque in Piura and Ismael Carrera in Lima. Don Felicíto, owner of a small transport company, is extorted for protection money, but steadfastly refuses to pay. Ismael is a wealthy septuagenarian who marries his housekeeper partly to spite his avaricious sons. After Ismael and his new wife disappear on a long honeymoon, his longtime employee Don Rigoberto is left to deal with the aftermath—and Ismael’s sons, appropriately dubbed “the hyenas.” Don Felicíto finds some consolation with his mistress, Mabel, until she, too, disappears. The alternating story lines eventually converge amid scandal, kidnapping, and death. Llosa populates the novel with many down-home characters from his previous novels—Lituma, Don Rigoberto, Lucrecia, Fonchito—and modern-day Peru itself plays an important role. Throughout, Llosa is a master of the slow build: he layers disparate, suspenseful, and competing stories into a larger, fuller narrative that seamlessly arrives at its satisfying conclusion. A vivid tale of fathers and sons, rich and poor, this novel gives the world another reason to celebrate Llosa.

January 1, 2015
The Nobel laureate weaves together the tragicomic misfortunes of two families and several friends in this tale of crime, passion and avarice. Vargas Llosa (The Dream of the Celt, 2012, etc.) turns from the broad historical and political concerns of his previous novel to look at how blood ties unravel when money and deceit come into play. In Lima, Peru, the wealthy, aged widower Ismael surprises everyone-not least his two wayward sons-by suddenly marrying his much younger housekeeper.When the newlyweds fly off on a long honeymoon, the sons' anger at losing their inheritance is directed at Rigoberto, Ismael's longtime employee and friend and one of the witnesses to the couple's furtive ceremony. The ensuing personal threats and legal wrangling add to Rigoberto's troubled preoccupation with his teenage son's reports that a dapper, possibly demonic man has been appearing out of nowhere and talking to him. In the nearby city of Piura, Felicito's peace of mind unravels when he receives an extortionate note that threatens his transport business and mistress. One of his two sons is a good fellow, the other anything but, and Felicito has never been sure he's the father of the scapegrace. As the plots move toward various resolutions, the reunion of two sisters fits right in with all the other pairings. The themes of paternity and filial respect get a good workout, with permutations touching on the self-made man, inherited wealth, marital tolerance and sex after 70. Felicito's is the stronger story, as he is the book's richest character, and Vargas Llosa spends much time walking him around a city the author once lived in, giving readers a true feel for the streets, sounds and ceaseless heat. This master storyteller ensures that the book is continually intriguing and charming. Yet taken together, the two narratives don't make a strong whole, rather more a theme and variation that can seem sometimes dangerously close to what Rigoberto at one point calls his side of the story: a soap opera.

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Starred review from January 1, 2015
This magnificent Peruvian novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, moves away from the historical past, which he so richlyyet, admittedly, somewhat sluggishlyevoked in his most recent novel, The Dream of the Celt (2012), a biographical novel about Irish statesman Roger Casement. He now returns to his native land and his fantastically and lovingly created characters drawn from contemporary Peruvian society. The plot is complicated yet irresistible as the author follows the business and family difficulties of two businessmen, Felicito, who owns a trucking company in a small Amazonian town, and Ismael, who owns an insurance company in the capital city of Lima. Father-and-son conflict is the theme that connects the two story lines and ensures an unbreakable connection between this fabulously arresting novel and the fortunate reader who steps into its pages. Vargas Llosa, a soaring storyteller, mixes humor with solemnity, farce with seriousness, to arrive at novels that maintain a perfect balance between rigorous literary standards and free-for-all fun. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Vargas Llosa's literary reputation has spread far and wide, particularly his renown for creating beautifully dynamic stories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2014

In this latest work from Nobel Laureate Vargas Llosa, gentle Felicito Yanaque, a small businessman in Piura, Peru, suddenly finds himself being blackmailed, while Ismael Carrera, who owns a booming insurance company in Lima, plans to do something serious about the two good-for-nothing sons who want him dead. Yanaque and Carrera are "discreet heroes," trying to live by their own lights, and their stories will intersect. More intriguing characters from Vargas Llosa, who keeps loyal readers entertained by tossing familiar faces--Sergeant Lituma, Dona Lucrecia--into the narrative stream.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2014

In his latest endeavor, Nobel Prize winner Vargas Llosa returns to his Peruvian roots and a contemporary milieu in two alternating narratives from the business world. In one, set in the author's famed Piura, Felicito Yanaque is being blackmailed; under no circumstances will he give in to the extortionists, even after one of his stores is burned and his mistress is kidnapped. In the other thread, Ismael Carrera marries his house servant Armida, a union that his two sons oppose vehemently even when the elderly Ismael suddenly dies; this story arc is padded somewhat by a secondary plot involving the ambiguity of an imaginary friend. In the author's typical style, the two story lines converge at the end when Armida seeks refuge from the two ungrateful stepsons in the home of her sister Gertrudis, who is Felicito's wife. Felicito and Ismael, each a "discreet hero," defend prudently if not stubbornly their sense of morality. Several characters (Sergeant Lituma, Don Rigoberto and his family) reappear from earlier novels, as does the effective narrative device of immersing flashbacks into the current conversation. Readers can follow each thread separately or embrace the entire novel sequentially, resulting in a different reading experience. VERDICT Well paced with a rhythm that gradually builds to the denouement, this is one of the most appealing and realistic Vargas Llosa novels. [See Prepub Alert, 9/15/14.]--Lawrence Olszewski, North Central State Coll., Mansfield, OH

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2014

In his latest endeavor, Nobel Prize winner Vargas Llosa returns to his Peruvian roots and a contemporary milieu in two alternating narratives from the business world. In one, set in the author's famed Piura, Felicito Yanaque is being blackmailed; under no circumstances will he give in to the extortionists, even after one of his stores is burned and his mistress is kidnapped. In the other thread, Ismael Carrera marries his house servant Armida, a union that his two sons oppose vehemently even when the elderly Ismael suddenly dies; this story arc is padded somewhat by a secondary plot involving the ambiguity of an imaginary friend. In the author's typical style, the two story lines converge at the end when Armida seeks refuge from the two ungrateful stepsons in the home of her sister Gertrudis, who is Felicito's wife. Felicito and Ismael, each a "discreet hero," defend prudently if not stubbornly their sense of morality. Several characters (Sergeant Lituma, Don Rigoberto and his family) reappear from earlier novels, as does the effective narrative device of immersing flashbacks into the current conversation. Readers can follow each thread separately or embrace the entire novel sequentially, resulting in a different reading experience. VERDICT Well paced with a rhythm that gradually builds to the denouement, this is one of the most appealing and realistic Vargas Llosa novels. [See Prepub Alert, 9/15/14.]--Lawrence Olszewski, North Central State Coll., Mansfield, OH

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.