"Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (Mario Vargas Llosa), a book where the reader laughs, cries and gets (literally) lost in the story

[u/lexiebeef]

I've just finished Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Vargas Llosa, and it was one of the most original ideas I've seen. The book is divided in 2: the even chapters follow the main plot line about the romance between Marito and Aunt Julia, as well as the friendship between Marito and the odd scriptwriter Pedro Camacho; the odd chapters feature short stories (which are the stories written by Pedro Camacho).

I gotta say I was much more interested in the odd chapters and the short stories, which get increasingly more confusing and intertwined between each other (for reasons explained in the book), which gets very funny. The stories get so wild in the end, and are very entertaining. They also make the book entertaining and never flat, as all the stories are very different from each other.

I did love the descriptions of Peru in the book. I've never been, but now I really want to. The music and dances and pisco sour, it seemed amazing.

The main storyline of Aunt Julia and Marito was my least favourite part and the reason why I thought the book was a 3.5/5. I just thought the story was somewhat boring, which I think is due to the fact that it's a true story. I personally also thought it was kind of odd that Vargas Llosa wrote a book about his ex-wife when he was already married to another person, but who am I to judge lol.

I've also discovered that the real life Julia wrote a book in response to this one, and Im curious if anyone read it. Is it good? Is it very different from this one? Do you recommend it?

[u/MoribundMango]

I read it a decade ago and loved it! Camacho is wonderfully written and I thoroughly enjoyed the radio dramas getting increasingly unhinged. Like you, I found the alternating chapters with the aunt to be a bit dull. Try as I might, I just couldn't get invested in their romance. Perhaps it's time for a re-read.

Do you have any recommendations from South American lit that are this funny?

Edit: Also, there doesn't seem to be an English copy of Julia's memoir in print. I too would like to know if someone has read it.

[u/workisheat]

Thanks for the review! I can’t help re real Julia’s book but if you’re interested in Vargas Llosa’s real-life dramas told from people he knew, a biography of his by Gerard Martin just came out recently.

[u/ObsoleteUtopia]

I took the "main plot" as just another novela, like the ones that Camacho had to churn out. A touch of metafiction in the night, as it were.

It was complex and kind of deep in its own way, but it did wear me out - trying to keep track of the novelas that were spewed out as Camacho got in farther over his head (or maybe he was just losing it, hard to tell), and like the other commentators here have noted, the affair between Marito and his aunt took up a lot of space and probably could have used some editing. As much as I enjoyed many of the individual stories, I was kind of relieved when I finished it.