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Obsessed by Flaubert | Katherine S. Kovacs, Roger Shattuck | The New York Review of Books

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…I disagree with Professor Shattuck’s claim [in his review of Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Perpetual Orgy, NYR, July 16] that “In his [Vargas Llosa’s] own novels of high adventure and political acuteness he doesn’t write like Flaubert. His powerful and flexible narrative style has absorbed many influences.” Although other writers influenced him (especially Sartre and Dos Passos), none of them rivals Flaubert in importance. All of Vargas Llosa’s books contain echoes, reinscriptions, and reinterpretations of Flaubert. Not only The Perpetual Orgy but his entire oeuvre may be seen as one long meditation on Flaubert. His first novel La Ciudad y los perros (Time of the Heroes) takes place in a military school in Lima. In setting and in technique, the book seems to grow out of the first chapter of Madame Bovary, when “Charbovary,” wearing a ridiculous hat, arrives at school for the first time and an unidentified narrator describes the impression that this new pupil makes upon “us.” In The Perpetu

Visit us on Facebook! Opens External Webpage Visit us on Twitter! Opens External Webpage Visit us on Threads! Opens External Webpage Visit us on Bluesky! Opens External Webpage Mail to Print page Submit a letter: Email us letters@nybooks.com In response to: Mad About the Guy from the July 16, 1987 issue To the Editors : …I disagree with Professor Shattuck’s claim [in his review of Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Perpetual Orgy , NYR , July 16] that “In his [Vargas Llosa’s] own novels of high adventure and political acuteness he doesn’t write like Flaubert. His powerful a

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