Death in the Andes

Mar 27, 2013 Mag rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: south-american, favourite-2011

The old mingles with the new in Vargas Llosa’s Peru. Human sacrifices and spirits of the mountains, road building, terrucos – uncompromising, ruthless and cruel freedom fighters coming out of nowhere and conducting their cruel people trials, and superstitious mountain people (serruchos) are the backdrop for the plot and its main characters. Captain Lituma and his adjutant Tomasito, people from the new, more modern world, are posted in a remote mountain village to guard the road building against...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Patrick McCoy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

Death In The Andes (1993) is another fascinating novel by Peruvian master Mario Vargas Llosa. Llosa recounts several stories at once, the main overall story is the mysterious death of three people in a remote Andean village that is investigated by Peruvian Army corporal Lituma and his love struck deputy Tomas. Each night Tomas tells his story of his lost love, the beautiful and illusive Mercedes--who it turns out was from Lituma's hometown and the subject of yet another story. There is danger al...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have enjoyed everything I have read by Vargas Llosa, so I am biased. This was a great read, I didn't want to put it down. I was quite surprised that it had a (relatively) happy ending, considering the whole novel is about the death and destruction brought on by terrorism and corrupt government.

****
I first read this novel in Spanish in June 2008. Three years later, I am reading it in English, planning to teach it in a freshman seminar, and trying to read it through the eyes of an 18-year-old.

Th...more

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Feb 27, 2009 miaaa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to miaaa by: Ronny

Shelves: favourites

Every time I heard and think of South American, the people, the skin colour, the prehistoric civilisation, and even the sound of southern American I relate those to one word. Exotic. Exotica.

Is that all?
Apparently NO.

I generalised South American as one, I forgot just like Indonesia with thousand of ethnics and languages spread-out through the archipelago, South American people are varied as well.

Did I say exotic word before? I was fooled. I did not know what was so exotic about Southern Americ...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Patrizia O rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: premi-nobel, contemporanei, autori-autrici-perù

Se vi piacciono i libri che sino alla fine non svelano i loro misteri, evitate questo: complice una quarta di copertina un po’ troppo esplicita, la soluzione risulta evidente già dal primo capitolo. E il “colpo di scena” , la “sconvolgente verità” (sempre dalla quarta di copertina) dell’ultimo capitolo, secondo me, non impressiona proprio nessuno. Probabilmente, ho pensato io, non era questo l’intento dell’autore: non voleva scrivere un poliziesco, non intendeva dare alla luce il “commissario...more Se vi piacciono i libri che sino alla fine non svelano i loro misteri, evitate questo: complice una quarta di copertina un po’ troppo esplicita, la soluzione risulta evidente già dal primo capitolo. E il “colpo di scena” , la “sconvolgente verità” (sempre dalla quarta di copertina) dell’ultimo capitolo, secondo me, non impressiona proprio nessuno. Probabilmente, ho pensato io, non era questo l’intento dell’autore: non voleva scrivere un poliziesco, non intendeva dare alla luce il “commissario Montalbano” del Perù. E allora che libro voleva scrivere Vargas Llosa? Non sono sicura di averlo capito, ma provo lo stesso a scriverlo.
Il caporale Lituma, protagonista del racconto, è un simpatico poliziotto della Guardia Civil, che, con sincera curiosità verso il genere umano, cerca di entrare in sintonia con gli indios di Naccos. Il buon capitano si trova per le mani un mistero: la sparizione di tre persone. Chi possono essere i colpevoli, se non i soliti sospetti (cioè i terroristi di Sendero Luminoso)? Ma i conti non tornano e due loschi figuri avanzano ipotesi inquietanti che bisognerà pur verificare prima di gettare la spugna e trovare il capro espiatorio nei terrucos (terroristi).
Il teatro degli avvenimenti è Naccos, un cantiere minerario in declino, sperduto sulle Ande peruviane. L’atmosfera di paura che aleggia in quei territori è trasmessa attraverso le descrizioni delle incursioni che i terrucos compiono nei villaggi andini, dove svolgono processi sommari e poi spingono gli abitanti a eseguire le sentenze, spesso di morte, nei confronti dei loro paesani giudicati colpevoli di tradire il popolo e la rivoluzione. Sono racconti inquietanti, tragici che interrompono il lento fluire degli avvenimenti di Naccos, le lunghe notti durante le quali Tomasito (l’aiutante di Lituma) ripercorre le vicende del suo amore per Mercedes. Tra un episodio e un altro della vicenda, che richiederà diverse notti per essere raccontata tutta, emergono dei dettagli inquietanti sulla corruzione della Guardia Civil, inquietanti perché né Lituma né Tomasito trovano scandalose quelle collusioni e quelle complicità .
Ascoltando i racconti degli indios di Naccos, scopriamo che Sendero Luminoso non è che l’ultimo di una schiera di demoni che, secondo la mitologia andina, abitano quei luoghi. Pishtacos (una sorta di vampiri che si nutrono di grasso umano), Apus (i vendicativi numi tutelari delle montagne), Mukis (demoni che perseguitano coloro i quali profanano le viscere delle montagne) dalla notte dei tempi spadroneggiano sulle Ande e gli uomini hanno dovuto ingraziarseli in vari modi per non soccombere.

Tutte le vicende narrate si caratterizzano per una commistione dei piani temporali: come se coloro che ascoltano o rievocano venissero proiettati dentro la vicenda raccontata, senza alcun espediente narrativo che dica cosa è passato e cosa presente, cosa è immaginato e cosa reale. A volte invece sarebbe stato opportuno, anche se riconosco che l’espediente di Vargas Llosa contribuisce a creare e mantenere l’atmosfera di sogno, o meglio di incubo, che pervade tutto il racconto

Mi aspettavo che l’autore desse voce anche ai terrucos di Sendero Luminoso, invece nulla. Non conosciamo la loro versione. Peccato.
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Jun 26, 2011 Natalia Pì rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: americalatina

bel libro, probabilmente ha sofferto dell'essere stato letto con poco tempo a disposizione, quindi in modo frammentato e un po' distratto. in realtà sarebbero tre stellette e mezzo.

un romanzo di atmosfera, dove in realtà succede molto poco, e molti personaggi raccontano storie che si svolgono altrove, o in un altro momento dal presente, mi ha affascinato molto. penso che l'autore abbia reso molto bene l'idea di come ci si potesse sentire sulle Ande in quel periodo, con lo spauracchio costante de...more

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Aug 26, 2008 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Steve by: Adam

Shelves: fiction

This was an odd duck. At first I wondered about the translation, but Grossman is an old hand, so I'm not laying the reading experience at her feet. I'm a big fan of Llosa's War of the End of the World, which is pretty much an epic. With this one, it seems he wanted shrink his focus -- but still have it be a big novel that says things. Whatever. The numerous flashbacks got on my nerves (in English they seemed clumsily handled), and at times even manipulative, thus draining important scenes of the...more

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May 09, 2011 Henrike rated it 5 of 5 stars

Very good read. Strong captivating story that takes you deep into the Andes. I got hooked by the discription of the Peruvian people entangeled in this part-detective story, part-political allegory. Vargas Llosa not only discribes the political violence and social upheaval, but also the country's past, and its connection to Indian culture, especially the pre-Hispanic mysticism. Read it for the second time and still love it!

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Sep 02, 2012 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The most fascinating part of the novel for me was the way Vargas Llosa plays with time and space as he tells various, intersecting stories. I have never experienced a writer who could accomplish telling a story in two different moments simultaneously in such a flawless way.

The novel begins with some gritty stories of naive travelers who fall victim to Sendero Luminoso revolutionaries and then transitions into an exploration of the more sinister elements of indigenous cosmovision, including the...more

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May 30, 2012 Anthony rated it 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't put this engrossing book down. It's got a little bit of everything, and it pulls it all off - a love story, a murder mystery, even some spooky ghost stuff that verges on horror. But this is much better written than boilerplate genre fiction. Set in a mining camp in Peru, during the political killings of the Shining Path revolutionaries- the story is told from the point of view of Lituma, a police sergeant stationed in the middle of nowhere, as he struggles to understand the native's w...more

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Jan 25, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Awesome book. Mario Vargas Llosa blends folk tales with a love story behind the political screen of Shining Path terrorism. How did he do it?

The love story (and its a great love story) emerges from the young guard Tomas who tells Corporal Lituma as he has investigates three mysterious disappearances of local people including the mute young man he befriended. Constantly threatening them is the terror of the Shining Path guerrillas who threaten to kill everything and everyone in their path. To ad...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Isabel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lituma, now a corporal, is working at a remote Civil Guard post attached to a road-building camp in the Andes. There is more tension in his new post, as Lituma has to get to grips with the superstitions of the mountain people as well as the dark shadow cast by the Shining Path guerrillas who are known to be in the area and could attack the camp at any time. When three men disappear over a period of a few weeks, the Civil Guards wonder if they could have been killed by guerrillas or have gone to...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Nathaniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: originally-in-spanish

This was my introduction to Mario Vargas Llosa, chosen because it was the only book at an airport kiosk that bore a Nobel prize sticker where other titles were boasting of their sales accomplishments. I suspect that this was not the best introduction to Llosa, as it would now take a specific recommendation (or under-preparedness conniving with another understocked airport bookstore) to drive me back into his oeuvre.

“Death in the Andes” conjured an oppressive, dreadful and forlorn atmosphere wit...more This was my introduction to Mario Vargas Llosa, chosen because it was the only book at an airport kiosk that bore a Nobel prize sticker where other titles were boasting of their sales accomplishments. I suspect that this was not the best introduction to Llosa, as it would now take a specific recommendation (or under-preparedness conniving with another understocked airport bookstore) to drive me back into his oeuvre.

“Death in the Andes” conjured an oppressive, dreadful and forlorn atmosphere with such relentless success that my spirits sunk slightly whenever I opened the book. This is a success in technique; but it’s a poor strategy for attracting readers. The book is sparsely populated with hazy, dissatisfied men, moping around or grimacing at each other, sharing awful stories of torture, fear and death or doing “unspeakable” things to one another in drunken backrooms all in overwhelming opposition to a thin thread of vulnerable love rendered less charming by the mewlishness of its weaver. There is little contrast in the shunned, threatened and hopeless space from which this narrative issues.

But there is some. Aside from the whimpering and hard-to-believe love story, there is a pure and wonderful vein of the subversive and potent carnivalesque: the bar owners cum sorcerers cum violators (italics deliberately withheld) who set the tone of the mining town at night are a well-crafted, dark and elemental presence. The obviously named Dionisio rants, “Not everybody travels when they dance or sing or drink, only the best ones. You have to have a will for it and lose your pride and shame and come down from the pedestal where people have put themselves. The man who doesn’t put his thoughts to sleep, who doesn’t forget himself, or throw off his vanity and pride, or become the music when he sings and the dance when he dances and drunkenness when he drinks—that man does not leave his prison, does not travel, does not pay a visit to his animal or rise up to become spirit. That man does not live: he is decay, he is the living dead. And he cannot nourish the spirits of the mountains either.” After a passage like this (which is nourishing balm after two hundred stoic pages), I put away my ten foot pole and start reading Vargas Llosa dust jackets.

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Jun 10, 2011 Ben Loory rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

wow, totally masterful book. never read any llosa before. it's a love story, a mystery, an historical investigation... a full statement on the human condition! god damn. all pretty focused, 275 pages... lots of great characters, great writing, tons of different points of view... and it all comes together beautifully at the end. i can see why this guy won a nobel prize! IMPRESSED

[pisco=brandy; pishtaco=mythical(?) cannibal boogeyman; terrucos=terrorist/rebels]

Like pisco, music helps us understand...more wow, totally masterful book. never read any llosa before. it's a love story, a mystery, an historical investigation... a full statement on the human condition! god damn. all pretty focused, 275 pages... lots of great characters, great writing, tons of different points of view... and it all comes together beautifully at the end. i can see why this guy won a nobel prize! IMPRESSED

[pisco=brandy; pishtaco=mythical(?) cannibal boogeyman; terrucos=terrorist/rebels]

Like pisco, music helps us understand bitter truths. Dionisio has spent his life teaching them to people, but it hasn't done much good, most cover their ears so they won't hear. I learned everything I know about music from him. Singing a huaynito with feeling, giving yourself over to it, letting yourself go, losing yourself in the song until you feel that you're the song, that the music is singing you instead of you singing the music, this is the path to wisdom. Stamping your feet, stamping and spinning, adorning the figure, making and unmaking it without losing the rhythm, forgetting yourself, leaving yourself, until you feel that the dance is dancing you, that it's deep inside you, that it commands and you obey, this is the path to wisdom. You are no longer yourself, I am no longer myself but all the others. That's how we leave the prison of the body and enter the world of the spirits. By singing. Dancing. Drinking, too, naturally. You travel when you're drunk, Dionisio says, you pay a visit to your animal, you shake off worry, you discover your secret, you become who you really are. The rest of the time you're in prison, like the corpses in the ancient tombs or the cemeteries we have today. You're somebody's slave or servant, always. When we're dancing and drinking, there are no Indians, no mestizos, no white señores, no rich or poor, no men or women. The differences are wiped away and we become like spirits: Indians, mestizos, señores, rich and poor, women and men. Not everybody travels when they dance or sing or drink, only the best ones. You have to have a will for it and lose your pride and shame and come down from the pedestal where people have put themselves. The man who doesn't put his thoughts to sleep, who doesn't forget himself, or throw off his vanity and pride, or become the music when he sings and the dance when he dances and drunkenness when he drinks–that man does not leave his prison, does not travel, does not pay a visit to his animal or rise up to become spirit. That man does not live: he is decay, he is the living dead. And he cannot nourish the spirits of the mountains, either. They want first-rate creatures who have freed themselves from their slavery. Many people, no matter how drunk they get, do not become drunkenness. Or the song or the dance, even though they yell and shout and stamp the ground until it gives off sparks. But that little mute who works for the cops, he does. Even though he's mute, even though he's a half-wit, he feels the music. He knows. And I've seen him dance, all alone, going up or coming down the hill, running his errands. He closes his eyes, he concentrates, he begins to walk in rhythm, to take little steps on tiptoe, to move his hands, to jump. He's hearing a huayno that only he can hear, that they sing only to him, that he sings without making a sound from deep inside his heart. He loses himself, he goes away, he travels, he leaves, he approaches the spirits. The terrucos didn't kill him that time in Pampa Galeras, because the spirits of the mountains were protecting him. Or maybe they had marked him for something greater. They'd receive him with open arms, like those lords in the old days who were offered up by the women, the ones who sleep now in the tombs. But you, in spite of your trousers and the balls you're so proud of, you're shitting with fear. You prefer to have no work, to be dried and sliced by the pishtacos, to let the terrucos take you into their militia, let them stone you to death, anything before you'd shoulder a responsibility. It's no wonder there are no women left in Naccos. They withstood the attack of the evil spirits, they maintained the life and prosperity of the village. It began to go down when they left, and you men don't have the courage to stop it. You let life slip away, you let death fill the empty places. Unless…

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Jun 09, 2011 Jeruen Dery rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Next up on my reading list is this novel, entitled Death in the Andes (Spanish title: Lituma en los Andes), by Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa.

Why did I pick this up? Well, I was browsing the books in the famous Strand Bookstore in New York City last month, and I saw The War of the End of the World (Spanish title: La guerra del fin del mundo) by the same author. I was quite captivated by the description of it, but felt guilty of buying two books at the same time (this was the time I bought V....more Next up on my reading list is this novel, entitled Death in the Andes (Spanish title: Lituma en los Andes), by Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa.

Why did I pick this up? Well, I was browsing the books in the famous Strand Bookstore in New York City last month, and I saw The War of the End of the World (Spanish title: La guerra del fin del mundo) by the same author. I was quite captivated by the description of it, but felt guilty of buying two books at the same time (this was the time I bought V. by Thomas Pynchon), so I settled for that, and made a mental note that I would look up Vargas Llosa and see whether I would like his works or not.

Anyway, it turned out that he also belongs to the Post-Modernist clique, and so I figured that it would be great to read his books. I went to the university library and found this one.

So what is this about?

This is the novel about two Civil Guards, Corporal Lituma and his adjutant Tomas Carreno. Lituma has a higher rank than Carreno, and they are stationed at a remote place in Peru, somewhere in the mining fields, named Naccos. They are trying to investigate the disappearance of three different people: a mute person, an albino, and a mine worker. There's also the Sendero Luminoso, a rebel group that is active in Peru, who has plenty of underground activities. Finally, there's also the element of mystic rituals.

Lituma tries to interview the locals in order to determine the cause of the disappearance. However, this isn't easy, because soon enough, he learns that the locals believe in mystic spirits and bogeymen, called pishtacos. The locals actually think that the pishtaco is the cause of the disappearance. So Lituma is obviouslt frustrated.

A parallel story is the love story between Tomas Carreno and the love of his life, Mercedes. Mercedes is a prostitute who is rented for a rather big and fat officer, who is highly turned on by bullying his sexual partner. Mercedes and this officer were role-playing, and Tomas was guarding the shack, when Tomas couldn't bear it anymore to hear the pleads for mercy by Mercedes. He comes into the shack and shoots the officer, and tells Mercedes that he loves her.

Weird story, but yeah, that's basically it.

While reading this book, I felt like I was in a weird nightmare. It felt like nothing made sense while reading this book. The dialogue is heavily interlaced, which apparently is a feature of Vargas Llosa's writing style. There would be a scene for example in which Tomas would narrate an encounter between him and Mercedes to Lituma, and so the conversation within a conversation would not be marked, the text would just go back and forth, and the reader's task is to determine the difference. Thus, it was a little confusing that way.

Also, near the end, it seemed that two of the missing people came back: the albino and the mute. However, it wasn't clear whether it was actually them, or it was their ghosts, given that the scene happened in a tavern, and everyone else in the tavern was more or less drunk.

So, did I like this novel? Yeah, I could say that. Not a lot, though. There were quite a few holes that I needed to fill in, and Vargas Llosa's style needed a little getting used to. I am actually glad that I didn't buy the other book, but reading this won't prevent me from picking up another novel by Vargas Llosa. Maybe it's just this one, I don't know. After all, my first Saramago book was The Cave and I didn't like that one compared to the other books that I read from the same author.

I am giving this one 3 out of 5 stars.(less)

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Oct 26, 2010 AdultFiction Teton County Library rated it 4 of 5 stars

Teton Co Library Call No: F Vargas Llosa
Marisa's rating: 4 stars

From what I have read about Mario Vargas Llosa, the subject emerging on his pages time and again, whatever the disguise, is the ancient cultural collision that spawned this turbulent hemisphere and the myriad ways its shock waves still define us. Death In The Andes is no exception - it is exceptional. This book examines the disappearances of three villages in a remote Andean town, through the eyes of the detectives who are sent to k...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

In my estimation, Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, is among the best novelists of the past half century. Death in the Andes is the fourth novel I have read by Vargas Llosa, preceded by Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The War of the End of the World, and Feast of the Goat. All of these novels are remarkable achievements and they attest to the diversity and scope of Vargas Llosa's talents. While Death in the Andes was not my favorite (I would rate The War of the...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Brendan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, fiction, mystery

We read this book for my mystery reading group, but it's hardly a mystery, traditional or no. Death in the Andes tells the story of two downtrodden Civil Guards who find themselves stuck at a remote outpost where they may be overrun by Communist rebels (of the "Shining Path") at any moment. To add insult to injury, several locals have been disappeared and the policemen can't help but wonder where they've gone.

Llosa writes in a stream-of-consciousness style, mixing voices and time periods togethe...more We read this book for my mystery reading group, but it's hardly a mystery, traditional or no. Death in the Andes tells the story of two downtrodden Civil Guards who find themselves stuck at a remote outpost where they may be overrun by Communist rebels (of the "Shining Path") at any moment. To add insult to injury, several locals have been disappeared and the policemen can't help but wonder where they've gone.

Llosa writes in a stream-of-consciousness style, mixing voices and time periods together in a sometimes confusing melange. That said, the book is interesting and compelling, if a bit slow. A few thoughts:

* The pace maintains the tension that haunts the main characters, who wait for their own deaths in the mountain shack where they've been stationed. The grim nature of "we could be killed at any moment" pervades the book.
* It becomes evident that the villagers have become entranced by the bartender and his wife. As one of my book club colleagues pointed out, the nature of their cult is quite Dionysian. The woman urges the villagers on their drunken revels, and helps them pick who shall be sacrificed. The grim specter of the Shining Path revolutionaries haunting the jungles around the village are allegorized by these superstitious villagers. The moral: people are able and willing to be vicious for many reasons.
* As a mystery, the story's not very satisfying. While the detective does make a nominal attempt to solve the murders, it's pretty secondary to the other elements at work in the story. My mystery group was most displeased.
* The narrative style, weaving past into conversations in the present and mixing tales of different characters, takes some getting used to. In the end, I appreciated what the book was trying to do, but felt the story becomes far secondary to the style.
* I would have liked for the publisher to make a bit more effort to provide connection points for non Peruvian readers. I think a short introduction about the political history of the region and perhaps a glossary at the back would have been nice.
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Jan 15, 2011 Joyce Lagow rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: latin-american-fiction

Corporal Lituma and Guard Tomás Carreño have been stuck in a post high in the Andes in the village of Naccos, where a road is being built. Three men from the camp has disappeared, including a mute Tomás brought with him when he reported to the post. At first Lituma fears the terruchos, a terrorist guerrillas of the Sendero Luminosa (Shining Path), a Marxist style rebel group that has been operating in the area, brutally killing “enemies of the people”. But no one in the camp wants to talk about...more

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Dec 27, 2010 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this 1993 novel, Vargas Llosa does for the Andes what Tolstoy did for the Caucasus 130 years earlier in The Cossacks. That is, he drops the oil of an outsider in the water of a mysterious mountain culture torn by violence. Nominally a detective fiction, this, like Tolstoy's classic, is really more of a vividly painted sociology intertwined with a love story and an unfulfilled existential quest, and lots of drinking. The detective work involves two civil guardsmen sent to a remote mountain vil...more

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Oct 15, 2010 Marieke rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller, scary, latin-america, nobel-winner, fiction, 2010

I'm not sure I totally understand this book.

It had kind of a weird technique in which the author told two stories at once---like the past and the present occupying the same space on the page. It could be confusing and sometimes I had to reread passages (this isn't necessarily a bad thing). I'm not totally sold on that technique, but maybe it works better in Spanish. I'm not sure if my Spanish is up to the task of doing a comparative exercise but it might be fun to try. I knew before I started t...more

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May 15, 2013 Ioana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, modern-lit, terrorism, peruvian-lit, nobel-laureate

I am ashamed to admit that I only recently (in my early 30s) "discovered" Vargas Llosa, and only read my first work by him in April (2013). My choice of "Death in the Andes" was twofold: first, I had been on a "mystery" binge for at least a year, devouring daily Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Jo Nesbo, Baldacci & the like, and was ready to move on to more substantial, less mind-numbing (written for entertainment value primarily) work--"Death in the Andes" seemed like a perfect transition, a more lit...more I am ashamed to admit that I only recently (in my early 30s) "discovered" Vargas Llosa, and only read my first work by him in April (2013). My choice of "Death in the Andes" was twofold: first, I had been on a "mystery" binge for at least a year, devouring daily Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Jo Nesbo, Baldacci & the like, and was ready to move on to more substantial, less mind-numbing (written for entertainment value primarily) work--"Death in the Andes" seemed like a perfect transition, a more literary mystery by a Nobel laureate (it ended up not being much of the latter). Second, I had just within the past year visited South America for the first time, hiking the Inca trail and falling in love with the people and culture of Peru in a more intense and passionate way than I ever have with a locale previously during my travels--the fact that Vargas Llosa is Peruvian and that this novel takes place in the most beautiful, mysterious, tranquil and surreal setting I have ever experienced clinched the decision to try and move beyond my current phase of shallow feel-good mysteries.

By most accounts, this is not Vargas Llosa's best work, and by others, "Death in the Andes" is a meandering "mystery" that doesn't quite live up to any mystery standards. I agree wholeheartedly with both appraisals: the first, because I am not trudging through "The War of the End of the World," an epic fictionalized account of the Brazilian fanatical/rebel settlement Canudos (during the latter part of the 19th century), and, although I am not even halfway through, I consider this to be the most brilliant work of fiction I have ever read, and the competition has been fierce (previously I was enamored with Sartre's "Age of Reason" trilogy, all of Camus & most of Atwood, Vonnegut, Irving, Heller, and the like: we're not talking of a comparison between Vargas Llosa and Christie or Baldacci, but of one with serious heavyweights).

Regarding the second point, "Death in the Andes" is not a mystery; it's full of mystery, but is not in any way, shape, or form, a detective or mystery novel in which the three disappearances which center the novel are systematically solved. Rather, it is a lyrical, incredibly written drama which offers profound insights into the nature of human experience, a beautiful description of native life in the Andes of Peru, a surreal atmosphere in which the horrific is rendered mundane while the prosaic is transposed into the realm of mystery, and a tragic illustration of the mechanics of terror, superstition, and power--an incredible induction into Latin American "magical realism".

On the surface, "Death in the Andes" is a story about two guards/officers sent to a remote outpost in the Andes to protect the workers in a small mining town in an extremely dangerous region which the Shining Path (communist guerrillas of Peru) rules through massacres, rapes, plunder, and other terrorist acts. The story begins after the third disappearance of a miner, as the guards are seeking answers to the possible fates of the missing men (Were they killed by the Shining Path? Did they run off to join this group? Were acts of nature involved? Or were the men "sacrificed"--willingly or not--to the spirits of the mountains, to appease them for the tumultuous changes ravaging local communities?).

As much as the disappearances play a role in the broader illustrations of how individuals make meaning within a chaotic, senseless world in which they are manipulated by forces which they feel helpless to shape (such as terrorism), the mystery, and the "solving" of possible crimes, is besides the point. Instead, Vargas Llosa paints a complex world in which even when known as fact, the "solution" of the disappearances remains ambiguous, unintelligible, mysterious, in which any clear lines between "good" and its opposite have been effectively blurred beyond recognition, and in which we are left to question how we can possibly identify and empathize with those who practice acts which, if written as catchy bylines, would terrify us (such as "Human Sacrifice in the Andes").

If it's not already clear why I absolutely loved this book so much that the next day I bought five more Vargas Llosa books and almost immediately started reading "The War of the End of the World," suffice to say that there is only one reason, and it's more than one hundred others together: Vargas Llosa's brilliant aesthetic and incredible ability to poignantly depict the ambiguous and complex nature of humanity. I haven't been this glued to every word, nuance, and detail in a book for many, many years. Usually I read fast, trying to devour as many books as possible in the limited time I have to read in a week, but with "Death in the Andes," I was savoring every word, looking up references online, visualizing the setting and characters, in general just taking my time to enjoy the beautiful writing and surreal (to a Westerner) story... I can only imagine how beautiful this novel is in Spanish: Vargas Llosa has inspired me to get going on my Spanish learning (I've been meaning to for a while) so I can read this powerful novel in its original language.

The only aspect of this novel that was surprising/not as satisfying was the ending... for such a tragic work (about the emotional terror of living in a setting in which one may be prayed on at any time by nationalist terrorist group The Shining Path, and about the superstitious religious beliefs of local communities, including human sacrifice), the ending was surprisingly happy. Everything worked out too perfectly for both protagonists, they both got what they wanted: one got the girl, the other won relocation to a safer community... This was quite uplifting, considering the rest of the novel, but I also felt like the ending detracted from the roller coaster emotional ride and tragic nature that constituted 99% of the work. I kept waiting for the same fate to befall the two Guards as the other "missing" characters...

Still, brilliant atmospheric writing, and a 5+++ in my book. I am looking forward to a Vargas Llosa binge for the next few months, or however long it takes me to get through the rest of his novels :) I am in love!!!!(less)

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Mar 07, 2012 Fabian rated it 4 of 5 stars

So now I am really getting a feel for the Peruvian maestro (read 5 of his like 20 or so books). "Death in the Andes" is a horror story made comical, like most Latin American tragedies (seen in "Before Night Falls," or "Kiss of the Spider Woman", or more recently, M.V.L.'s "The Feast of the Goat") which persist hard in trying not to be overtly sad. Thematically rich, with tragedy piled atop tragedy, the narrative flow is invigorating, forcing the reader to forget all about airport terminals and t...more

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May 29, 2010 Frank Kasell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: peruvian, bought-at-idle-time-books, nobel-prize-winners, south-america

To be honest, it was probably more of a 3.5 in my mind. The New York Times reviewer Smartt Bell sort of nailed my impression when he wrote, "'Death in the Andes' is fascinating without being fully satisfactory." The insider's perspective on the various faces of contemporary Peru were fascinating. The details on ancient Peruvian mysticism were fascinating (especially the whole pishtaco mythology...I'm glad I am aware of that legendry now). The overall structure with the present and past interming...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Marvin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle

Death in the Andes is ostensibly a mystery. Three men are missing in an impoverished Andean mining town. This is originally blamed on the Senderistas, a vicious Communist guerrilla group that terrorized Peru in the 80s. However, when Civil Guards Lituma and Carreno investigate, they suggest there may be older and more disturbing forces at work. But Llosa is not so interested in the mystery as much as to chronicle the history of violence in modern Peru as well as its ancient sources. There is no...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Algernon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

[7/10]
A haunting and disturbing story, skillfully presented, but I hold Mr. Llosa to higher standards after including his sprawling, philosophical War Of The End of The World on my favorites list. I learned a lot now about modern Peru, which is why I picked the book up in the first place, but I also had issues with the muddled dialogue, with the slow pace, continually fragmented by flashbacks, and with a perceived bias against the Sendero Luminoso guerilla, who received an extremely harsh treat...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Jdamaskinos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent description of the brutality and primitive insticts which man has in him and which civilization struggles in vain to eradicate. A wonderful description of the sublime Andean landscape as well. I would prefer this book without the last bit of it (Epilogue), as I think that tangled mysteries are more attractive than the answered ones. Overall, a great book by a real novelist.

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Jul 25, 2011 Colin N. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In "Death in the Andes" two civil guards, Lituma and Tomas, are posted to a remote village in Peru to protect the people from Shining Path guerrillas who are rumored to be in the region. Three men have gone missing and the men attempt to investigate their disappearances without much help from the natives. Have they been killed by the guerillas? By the natives? By the pishtacos and other spirits that may haunt these isolated lands?

The story unfolds in a typical Llosa structure with numerous over...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Alexy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: in-spanish

Just a note for myself. Reading "A Tale of Two Cities". The same themes : vengeance and Fate. The power of a violent vengeful crowd and the vengeful nature (vengeful mountain spirits, vengeful Sendero Luminoso -the Peruvian commies, the landslide episode). Both are historical dramas with gore, but Lituma - reads like a realistic wake-up call,
Dickens - still as a romantic piece.

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Apr 06, 2013 Tomas rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Y ahí estaba, en el horizonte de la cordillera (...) esa coloración extraña, entre violeta y morada que él había visto (...) en las bolsas de lana que los campesinos colgaban de las orejas de las llamas, y que era para él el color mismo de los Andes, de esta sierra tan misteriosa y tan violenta".

Si bien no me parece una trama del todo lograda o al menos que le haga justicia a los personajes tan bien construidos; sin duda la riqueza de la novela yace en que esté enmarcada en retratos vívidos que...more

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