The American Interest: Prof. Russell Crandall on Author Mario Vargas Llosa's Latest
Lauded author and Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa's latest work, Cinco Esquinas ("Five Corners"), "proves the observation that there are truths about human social and political nature that are best told in fiction," writes Professor of Political Science Russell Crandall.
Crandall's piece in The American Interest expands on Vargas Llosa's formative years in Arequipa, experience as a failed presidential candidate and life as an ex-pat in Europe. Writing from Arequipa, Peru, where Crandall has spent the semester leading the Davidson in Peru program, he notes that Vargas Llosa's 19th work is "...a scorching novel about the dictatorial regime that came into power after it unexpectedly but decisively defeated the same novelist in a presidential election," and "...an instance of art imitating life imitating art."