In Conversation in the Cathedral, Mario Vargas Llosa gives his readers access to former President Manuel A. Odria’s dictatorship in Peru in the early 1950s. The two main characters share memories about their past through a conversation happening in a cathedral. In this conversation we get a glimpse of what the society in Lima was like. Themes in this book include political corruption, sexual degradation, and repression. There are plots and subplots and the narrative jumps around making the novel challenging to read. However, this is one of Mario Vargas Llosa’s best novels and I would recommend it as a read over break!
It is a pleasure to read your review. Mario Vargas LLosa’s novel, War at the End of the World, was an unforgetable experience. When I find the time I shall take up this book. Have not read and you have reminded me of the kind of writer Vargas LLosa is.
Always a favorite of mine. But I also recommend an early novel Aunt Julia and Scriptwriter and War at the End of the World.