Stephanie Jane reviewed The Way to Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa
Brilliant book!
5 stars
was delighted to spot a copy of The Way To Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa in a campsite book exchange. I loved the wonderful visions of The Feast of the Goat and The War of the End of the World, also by Llosa, so was hoping for more of the same this time around. As it turned out, I think The Way To Paradise is a far more accessible and straightforward novel, but it's none the worse for that. Set in two periods of the nineteenth century, Llosa imagines detail around the lives of the artist Paul Gauguin and his ought-to-be-even-more-famous grandmother, Flora Tristan. Historical facts of their lives are woven into two fabulously written tales that mirror each other in their protagonists' desires to create perfection, albeit in vastly different circumstances.
Paul Gauguin is already moderately famous when we join him. He has already lived with the 'mad Dutchman' …
was delighted to spot a copy of The Way To Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa in a campsite book exchange. I loved the wonderful visions of The Feast of the Goat and The War of the End of the World, also by Llosa, so was hoping for more of the same this time around. As it turned out, I think The Way To Paradise is a far more accessible and straightforward novel, but it's none the worse for that. Set in two periods of the nineteenth century, Llosa imagines detail around the lives of the artist Paul Gauguin and his ought-to-be-even-more-famous grandmother, Flora Tristan. Historical facts of their lives are woven into two fabulously written tales that mirror each other in their protagonists' desires to create perfection, albeit in vastly different circumstances.
Paul Gauguin is already moderately famous when we join him. He has already lived with the 'mad Dutchman' (Van Gogh) in Arles and I loved being able to accurately visualise these scenes based on our recent visit. Llosa follows Gauguin to Brittany and then to Tahiti where his dissolute lifestyle and failing health both drive him to paint masterpieces and to descend into alcoholism and decrepitude. Llosa writes in a blend of third and second person narration which I found especially effective in allowing us to understand the minds of both Paul and Flora. Paul's desperation to become a part of Tahitian society while also remaining aloof enough to observe as an artist, and lacking the cultural history to fully comprehend Maori beliefs and attitudes is wonderfully poignant. Llosa takes time to immerse his readers in several of Paul's paintings as they are created and I enjoyed viewing them online with such insights. Plus I don't think I have read a death so delicately and powerfully portrayed since I read Jack London's To Build a Fire.
Flora Tristan's story is set fifty years before Paul's and I cannot believe that I had never heard of this amazing woman before. We follow her on a tour of France as she endeavours to recruit downtrodden labourers to her Worker's Union, a socialist concept that she devised herself. Llosa uses her travels to highlight the vast social differences in 1840s France with some disturbing descriptions of then standard working conditions. I became almost as frustrated as Flora at the workers failure to understand how they could use her ideas to help themselves - much like The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - and their frequent dismissal of her words simply because of her gender. With Flora, we also travel to her lavish Peruvian ancestral home and I learned of her real-life memoir, Peregrinations Of A Pariah which I would now love to read. (If anyone knows where I can download an English language version, please let me know!)
In The Way To Paradise I think Llosa has written an amazing book which kept me glued to its pages despite its long-for-me 424 small print pages. I felt completely part of both Paul's and Flora's worlds even though I found it almost impossible to feel any sympathy for Paul at all, and Flora is so dedicated to her cause that she really isn't always likeable! Brilliant book!
