Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2000

Keywords

Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru

Abstract

Mario Vargas Llosa's murder mystery "Quien mato a Palomino Molero?", while certainly as entertaining an example of its genre as one would expect from an author of such universally acknowledged narrative skill, is ultimately less a tale of complicated sleuthing than it is a commentary on collective corruption, social injustice and base human nature. Against a sharply defined backdrop of the class system in his native Peru, Vargas Llosa registers in this novel the socio-political reality that oppresses the individual by limiting his opportunities, both personal and professional, and dooming to failure any attempt to escape the mandates of systemic social stratification. The author achieves his bleak portrayal of Peruvian society in a number of ways, but primary among them is his presentation of the theme of forbidden love and his use of coarse sexual imagery and counterpoint. It is through thematic considerations associated with problematic love and sex that Vargas Llosa creates a scenario in "Quien mato a Palomino Molero?"

Publication Title

Hispanic Review

Volume

68

First Page

267

Last Page

278

Required Publisher's Statement

Hispanic Review (Summer 2000)

Copyright 2000, University of Pennsylvania Press.

"All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112."

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Murder--Investigation--Fiction; Peru--Fiction

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Vargas Llosa, Mario, 1936- .Quién mató a Palomino Molero?

Geographic Coverage

Peru

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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