'GOOD BOY' WINS NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

ON MARIO VARGAS LLOSA 

What do you mean when you say someone is a 'bad girl'?

        If she has many lovers at a time or she is not loyal to her husband ?Or if she drinks or smokes? Or if she does not dress well i.e. revealing those parts which are not good to be revealed in your society,for example, a  purdah clad woman showing her face in public?Or if she does not get married even after the age for marriage approved ideal by the society?
        Think of the possible answers by men from different parts of this tiny world of human beings.
       The Nobel laureate in Literature for 2010 has an answer to this question.He ,probably answered it in 2006 or 2007.That is why he gave the title 'Bad Girl' for his novel that year.And there are many reasons to believe that he is the 'good boy' mentioned in the novel,at least partially.
       I have only 3 other novels by Mario Vargas Llosa with me now.They are:1.Conversation in the Cathedral 2.In Praise of the Stepmother and 3.The Feast of the Goat.In most of his novels,bad girls have some thing to tell us about a similar world.

       As the title denotes,Conversation in the Cathedral is a conversation between Santiago,the son of a politician and Ambrossio,the politician's chauffeur.But you cannot expect a bishop in the vicinity because the Cathedral is,actually, a bar.The novel is,in fact, a 32 or 33 year old novelist's(Llosa's) impression of  Peru under Manuel Odría between 1948 and 1957.

        In Praise of the Stepmother is almost a literary erotica.Praising one's stepmother in such an erotic way amounts to incest.The narration,however,deserves comment,especially the shift from erotic fantasies to mythic recreations. The beautiful paintings with which its chapters are interspersed also make the novel different.In some readers' opinion,the novel is nothing less than pornography.The three characters-Don Rigoberto,his son Fonchito and his stepmother Lucrecia make an unusual threesome who love one another in their own way.The boy probably cannot see anybody in place of his own mother.That is why she is subjected to his carnal desires.Parent-child relationship and husband-wife relationship in this novel reflect the inventive imagination and ability of the novelist.Nevertheless the stepmother-son affair is nauseating even though the artistry of the writer as a story teller is of infinite sophistication.

         Compared to this novel,The feast of the Goat is free from excessive erotic descriptions.Its thrust is  the gory fangs of oligarchy.A 14 year old girl is brutally raped-in a peculiar manner-by the tyrant Trujillo.The most unfortunate thing is her father's role in this incident.The rape is revealed only in the last chapter of the novel.The protagonist Urania Cabral's detestation of amorous advances of men around her is the result of this heinous incident.As we read we get a clearer picture of the impact of oligarchy on the minds of Peru.Llosa weaves history into his narration so beautifully.That is his narrative technique without which the novels may not be of much seriousness.
          The 'good boy ' Ricardo Somocuricio is an expatriate except on a few occasions in the novel 'The Bad Girl'.
         The first chapter is set in his own country Peru.The bad girl is Lily while in Peru.She is believed to be a Chilean girl.It is this status that makes the boys glue to the girl.But before long the mysteries related to the 'Chilean' girl are clarified.She was not a Chilean at all ! She was a cheap girl from some neighborhood who passed herself off as a foreigner and slipped in among the decent natives of Peru.

         In the second chapter,we see her as a guerrilla fighter-a comrade who was selected to experience the fever of the Cuban Revolution.Llosa writes that Paris was teeming with young people from the five continents in the early days of the 1960s.Ricardo meets her in Paris.She is Comrade Arlette now.
         Once,as they are having a chat, he tells her about his examination.Then she asks him to cross his fingers and knock a table three times for passing the exam.To provoke her Recardo asks her if those kinds of superstition are compatible with scientific doctrine of Marxism-Leninism."To get what you want,anything goes" was her reply.
         She proves it with her life.She leads her life very cunningly to get what she wants.She is Madame Robert Arnoux next time,the wife of a high-ranking UNESCO official.Nevertheless, we find her going to bed with Ricardo,although she is indifferent.She makes no corresponding movements while being kissed or caressed.'Her body seemed like an iceberg'.She is not loyal to anybody.Next she is Mrs.Richardson.
        A character,a hippy, by name Juan Barreto says,

"The secret to happiness,at least to peace of mind,is knowing how to separate sex from love"

        When Ricardo approaches her this time,she rudely tells him to let go of her calling him a fucking beast.But later she gives in - with her proverbial indifference,without the slightest gesture of reciprocity.Later we find her as the mistress of a Japanese businessman Fukuda.Thus wherever she goes Ricardo happens to be there as usual.
        Finally she becomes his wife.Readers probably learn to differentiate sex and love,to separate sex from life.When she is bed ridden due to chancre he nurses her(before marriage).After waking up from a deep sleep she asks :

"I ruined your night,didn't I,Ricardito?"
Ricardo replies:
"And you'll ruin my day too.Because you're going to stay here in,in bed.No arguments allowed.The time has come for me to impose my authority over you,bad girl"

She is also justified for telling lies:

"Living in the fiction gave her reasons to feel more secure,less threatened than living in the truth than in a lie"

They get married on an autumn in October 1982(They met in 1950) and that same afternoon he had to leave for Rome with a two week contract at Food and Agricultural Organization. But do not think that he wants to lead a typical conjugal life.The novel that is  narrated from the point of view of Ricardito goes on like this:

At times it was difficult for me to see her leading a life that was so normal,enjoying her work and,it seemed to me,happy in, or at least resigned to,our petit bourgeois life,working hard all week,preparing supper at night,going to the movies,the theater,an art show,or a concert,eating out on weekends,almost always by ourselves.....

It tells us a lot about Mario Vargas Llosa's view of life.It also tells us about his profound knowledge of Marxism as well.Even after giving up Marxism,he is not free from its influence.May be that is what made him a  writer whose works are historically significant.
         Mario Vargas Llosa deserves Nobel Prize.(It is said to be a baptism to anti-communist block too.)As some readers opine,  Nobel Prize came too late for Llosa.