”صديقي العزيز: إنتي أحاول أن أقول لك أن تنسى كل ما قرأته في رسائلي، حول الشكل الروائي، وأن تبدأ، دفعة واحدة، بكتابة الروايات.“

“We need hardly seek out examples of the way themes from life thrust themselves on writers, because all testimonies tend to concur: a story, a character, a situation, a mystery haunted me, obsessed me, importuned me from the very depths of my self until I was obliged to write it to be free of it.”

Llosa writes these letters to a fictional wanna-be novelist who, from what little I gather is fifteen year old but who has read (or at least so Llosa thinks) every great book on Earth.

It is quite good. I didn’t have high expectations. I mean we all know the basic necessities that a young novelist have, right? a book idea, stationary, willingness to do hard work, free time, Wi-fi, a sexy secretary etc.

The first one-third is full of idealist ramblings, with author telling that a novelist must completely submit to his art:

The literary vocation is not a hobby, a sport, a pleasant leisure-time activity. It is an all-encompassing, all-excluding occupation, an urgent priority, a freely chosen servitude that turns its victims (its lucky victims) into slaves

And that he should be sincere

sincerity is for the novelist: the acceptance of his own demons and the decision to serve them as well as possible.

Then he discusses various aspects of a novel – and about how these aspects are handled by great novelists. If you have read enough, there might be nothing new in there but gives some great book recommendations in doing so, especially from Latin American literature.

The only problem is that while discussing them he becomes highly spoilerish regarding these books –to a the-wife-is-the-murderer degree. And then his P.S. is not very encouraging either:

My dear friend: what I am trying to say is that you should forget everything you’ve read in my letters about the structure of the novel, and just sit down and write

Es un libro donde vargas llosa mantiene correspondencia con una persona que al parecer le pide algun consejo de como escribir o algunos tips de que es lo que resulta mas importante para comenzar con el oficio. Vargas Llosa selecciona sus respuestas por capitulos y en cada uno de estos desarrolla un tema especifico, como el tiempo, el estilo, el espacio, la realidad, etc. Cada capitulo es una carta donde plasma sus conocimientos de manera magistral; y lo digo asi porque es digno de una catedra en literatura, el unico problema que veo en el libro es que puede llegar a arruinar tramas o grandes clasicos entre novelas y cuentos de autores muy conocidos, lo digo por experiencia y solo como advertencia, si vas a empezar con este libro sugiero que si tienes en alguna lista de pendientes a Faulkner , Hemingway , Kafka, Flaubert, Dickens, Stevenson por mencionar algunos, recomendaria que lean antes el indice onomastico de autores en el libro para que no se lleven con algun adelanto no requerido del final o de parte escencial de la trama de algun libro de mencionados.

Por lo demas si es muy recomendable para cualquier persona que quiera saber una perspectiva diferente de la teoria literaria.

#2022

I've read this book while walking on the street, at school or in the dentist waiting room (times when my mind usually is blank or wondering around) - not a single page at home so I can focus all my attention on it. Yes, it happened to feel the need to re-read sentences but I understood every point Llosa made there and so many times I smiled cause there were notes and observation that I myself as a reader intuited but couldn't grasp or put down as clear as Llosa.

I read the letters as if they were addressed to me for I myself wonder sometimes about the things you need to know and look at if you want to become a writer.
Anyhow, the letters are also useful to a reader in learning more about the process of creation.

It's hard to write something more about this book since it is itself a book that speaks of other books. A part of its content wasn't new to me - I learned some things about the space and time points of view but it was a lot more interesting than a literature class. There were new things, like the parallel of the intercommunicable pots or the hidden given (I think that's the way it's called, I'm not sure).
Very simple and concise, Llosa states a few times that the act of creation is a lot more complex than he presented it, but that a too deep incision of a book would most likely kill it.

He gives examples from the all time great novels for how-to's.
Mainly, he presents the choices concerning the space, time, level of reality and characters a writer has to make and the methods he can use to expand his novel to complex levels. There's no secret recipe, you still have to do the hard work of finding your own style.

Worth reading if you think you already think of literature as a whole made of little parts and want to know more about them.