Aunt Julia and the art writer

Tante Julia und der Kunstschreiber ( Spanish La tía Julia y el escribidor ; 2011 by Suhrkamp in the new translation by Thomas Brovot under the title Tante Julia und der Schreibkünstler ) is a novel by the Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa from 1977. Im Lima in the 1950s under the Odría military dictatorship, the young Varguitas loves his aunt Julia and makes his first steps as a writer. His successful colleague, the "radio play series writer" Pedro Camacho, loses his mind over the chord paperwork. The novel uses the two writers to trace the relationship between everyday life and art, between mass literature and more sophisticated prose.

shape

The novel consists of twenty chapters and is simply structured. The first-person narrator Varguitas alternates with an authorial narrator , from whose perspective the radio play programs produced by Pedro Camacho are written. The latter tells a new story in every even-numbered chapter, which is the main character of all fifty-year-old men with an aquiline nose and broad forehead. The sometimes hair-raising stories are not told to the end, but rather the tension is maintained with final questions such as “How will this drama end?” And asks the listener to tune in to the next program.

In the 9th chapter the reader learns how Camacho could get his stories. Varguitas accompanies Pedro Camacho to a drugstore. Pedro Camacho buys a bag of poison against mice. The reader assumes that Camacho was inspired for his story by the fight against the rat plague in Chapter 8 through the mouse plague in his living quarters. The last chapter, the twentieth, deviates from the even number rule mentioned above. Varguitas had to step in as a substitute scribe because Pedro Camacho had suffered a nervous breakdown after he had let most of his characters die - sometimes several times - .

In the 16th chapter at the latest - with the repeated attacks against the Argentines - the reader can no longer avoid the impression that Pedro Camacho could be the author of the even-numbered chapters. This suspicion could no longer be dismissed in Chapter 14 when the round brackets, mostly with question marks after proper names and facts, became rampant, perhaps to signal the writer's increasing uncertainty.

content

1

The eighteen-year-old first-person narrator, a third year law student, works in Lima at Radio Panamericana as head of news with the boy Pascual. Both compose short messages from newspaper notes. It is the heyday of radio plays. These are imported from Mexico , Argentina or Cuba . Because radio plays are not exactly cheap, a capable radio play author is sought. On the day that Genaro, the station's junior boss, finally buys the “radiophonic phenomenon” Pedro Camacho from La Paz , the narrator meets his fourteen-year-old aunt Julia, a divorced Bolivian , also from La Paz. The student does not like that the aunt in law treats him like a small child. She calls him "Marito" and smacks his cheek. The aunt has never heard of Pedro Camacho. Marito soon gets to know the bossy radio man of about forty, the "little man" with the sonorous voice and the "protruding eyes", personally. Genaro junior enters Marito's office, takes the heavy Remington away from him and, panting, drags it into the new man's office. Marito has to make do with a roof shed as an office.

2

The wife and daughter of the famous gynecologist Dr. Alberto de Quinteros have fun on a trip to Europe. The doctor stayed in Lima and attended the wedding of his niece Elianita with the red-haired Antúnez. The redhead had courted the beautiful woman fiercely. The lucky groom, heir to a fertilizer factory, graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in business administration. At the party, the bride passes out. The uncle does first aid in a secluded room. The gynecologist loosens the much too tightly laced corset and recognizes at first glance that the exhausted niece is four months pregnant. However, the bridegroom is with her too short to be the father. On the way home, Elianita's brother cries at his uncle's house that he loves his sister like a man. The question remains open: Will the redhead leave the disdainful wife on the first day of the marriage?

3

Marito recognizes Pedro Camacho's lack of humor. The extremely productive Bolivian hates the Argentines. Every short story that Marito writes, like “The qualitative leap”, written in the style of Borges , ends up in the trash after being judged to be really bad by relatives or friends. Marito woos Aunt Julia. He gives flowers. As he dances closely with her, he kisses her on the lips.

4th

Sergeant Lituma has picked up a naked black man in the port of Callao with whom he cannot communicate and brings him to Captain Jaime Concha at the station. The patrol officer disturbs his superior reading his Donald Duck notebooks. After some angry back and forth, Lituma receives an order from the captain's mouth that decides the fate of the man who is forked up. At first, the reader does not learn the content of the command. In a garbage dump on the Pacific , Lituma holds the service pistol to the black man's temple. The question remains open: will the sergeant carry out the orders of his superior?

5

Marito reveals to Aunt Julia that he had his first girlfriend when he was thirteen. The aunt adds that she remained a virgin until she was seventeen. Her marriage fell apart because she could not fulfill her husband's desire to have children. That doesn't deter Marito. Only their terrible ignorance bothers him a little. He kisses her.

6th

The Jehovah's Witness Gumercindo Tello, a mechanic from Moquegua , is accused of the thirteen-year-old Sarita Huanca Salaverría beaten and raped. Dr. jur. Pedro Barreda y Zaldívar, examining magistrate of the first criminal division of the Supreme Court of Lima, takes the accused to prayer. It doesn't claim to have been Gumercindo Tello. The medical findings are clear. The victim has wounds all over his body and is no longer a virgin. Sarita turns out to be a lustful Lolita during her interrogation . Dr. Zaldívar has to vigorously silence them - contrary to his custom. The only concern of the rather old parents of Sarita seems to be whether the accused Gumercindo Tello will marry the dishonored. He constantly affirms his innocence and pulls a knife to prove that he will only use his penis to urinate in the future and wants to cut it off. The question that remains: will the mechanic emasculate himself?

7th

Vargas Llosa tells the reader the name Maritos: Varguitas means Juliet's lover. The young gentleman doesn't earn enough to be able to take his aunt out. He discusses books and has reports appear in literature supplements. In the café, it's not just rubbing your knees against Aunt Julia. He also reads her his story “The Humiliation of the Cross”. The bad narrator doesn't do well with the annoyed new literary critic. Varguitas is entranced by the writing potential of the " Creole Balzac " Pedro Camacho. The Napoleon of Altiplano works a good fifteen hours on weekdays and around nine hours on Sundays. Camacho, the voice of mestizo America, does not print anything. His works, he believes, live on in the brains of radio listeners. He doesn't read books himself so as not to spoil his style. Varguitas introduces Aunt Julia to the great artist. She is one of his admirers, she lies.

8th

Don Federico Téllez Unzátegui, father of two attractive daughters and two weary sons, is the head of the rodent extermination company. As a boy he had to guard his newborn sister in Tingo María . Federico had fallen asleep and rats had meanwhile eaten the child. As a result, Don Federico had successfully fought the rat plague in Peru on all possible fronts for decades. The father of a family raises his wife and children with what he sees as very high moral standards. He's not so worried about his wife, who regularly defies his ban on snacking, but rather his four children. Nobody wants to follow in their footsteps. When he gets his hands on a magazine that shows his two daughters in bikinis on the beach, which he had forbidden, he tries to kill them as a punishment. It turns out differently than planned. The unloved father is thoroughly beaten up by all family members. The question that remains: would Don Federico survive the attack?

9

Aunt Julia meets a wealthy admirer. Varguitas is pissed off. She worked with the endocrinologist Dr. Osores tied up. Varguitas complains to Camacho of his suffering. The radio play author claims that he has never had anything with a woman - also because he is afraid of syphilis . Aunt Julia gives Dr. Osores the passport. Actually, Varguitas must be grateful to the endocrinologist for one insight: he loves his aunt. The radio listeners are eagerly awaiting Camacho's next production. Even the President of the Republic is one of the loyal listeners to the series. Genaro junior suspects that the father of the country must be sensitive.

10

The 28-year-old Lucho Abril Marroquín, Bayer pharmaceutical agent, has to be ordered by his boss, the taciturn Swiss Dr. Schwalb, constantly driving around - from Lima - in Peru. He would really like to be at home with his French-born young wife. It happens at the foot of the Sierra near Castrovirreina. A child jumps on the road. He runs over it with his VW in an intersection area. A truck comes down from the Sierra and runs over the representative - with the child in his arms. It dies. He survived seriously injured. The "shrink" Dr. Lucía Acémila successfully treats Marroquín's phobia against vehicles. Marroquín's wife, who in the meantime had a miscarriage and had escaped to France, is returning to Lima. Dr. Acémila finally declares Marroquín cured, but there is also a phobia against children. The radio listener notes with irritation that Dr. Schwalb orders the representative to report to the rodent extermination group. The question that remains: will Lucho Abril Marroquín shake off his infantophobia?

11

Dr. Alberto de Quinteros gave birth to his niece Elianita from triplets in a sequel to the radio play outlined in Chapter 2. Radio listeners complain to the broadcaster. A mother who died in childbirth was then present again at the child's baptism in the cathedral. Apparently, Camacho's success has gone to his head. He doesn't listen to the senior manager of the broadcaster. Varguitas is managed by Genaro sen. asked to talk to the crazy series author about the audience objections because he was "half an artist". Camacho has no understanding. In addition, his verbal attacks against the Argentines brought him a rain of slaps from two compact Argentine butcher journeyman. Varguitas must intervene. The prolific writer is taken to the municipal emergency room.

12

Twenty years before the start of the action, the young Ezequiel Delfín, a sales representative from Arequipa , rented the Colonial pension of the decrepit aristocrat Don Sebastián Bergua and his wife Margarita. One of the landlady's legs is eight inches shorter than the other. That's why Ms. Margarita is wearing a shoe-shine box-like walking aid. The impeccable manners of the reserved young man had not gone unnoticed by the host couple. Her attempts to couple up with the piano-playing daughter Rosa were in vain. One night Ezequiel Delfín assaulted the sleeping host in bed and stabbed him fourteen times. Then the monster undressed, entered Frau Margarita's bedchamber naked and tried to rape the ugliest woman in the boarding house. The hobble leg defends itself. The pianist, who rushed over to the noise, hands Ezequiel Delfín over to the police. He is locked in the insane asylum. Don Sebastián Bergua sustained severe damage to his health and developed excruciating anxiety when one day - twenty years later - he read the newspaper. His tormentor murdered two men, broke out of the institution and is on his way to the pension. The question that remains: will Ezequiel Delfín invade Don Sebastián Bergua?

The attentive radio listener shakes his head again. There is talk of the Bayer Pension, the sales representative is called a pharmaceutical agent and the police arrest Lucho Abril Marroquín at the pension.

13

Varguitas' latest story, in which he declares war on the prejudiced relatives, cannot stand up to the critic Aunt Julia: Kitsch . The hypocritical relatives have long known about the two of them. The arrival of Varguitas' parents, who live in the USA, is threatened. The father is foaming with anger. The relationship exists on the aunt's return journey to Bolivia. Varguitas proposes to Aunt Julia.

Camacho confesses to Varguitas that he confuses figures and facts in his manuscripts.

14th

Reverend Father Seferino Huanca Leyva, son of a laundress, is sponsored by the Basque landowner Mayte Unzátegui and finally takes care of the residents of Mendocita, a poor district of Lima. Acting unconventionally, the state authorities accuse him of communist activities, among other things. The millionaire Mayte Unzátegui frees him every time. One of the priest's competitors in Mendocita is the evangelical pastor Don Sebastián Bergua. Don Sebastián used to be a gynecologist. This is nonsense. Don Sebastián is described in Chapter 12 as a stiff aristocrat, a descendant of the Spaniards who murdered Indians , who has nothing to do with the medical school. Jaime Concha (see Chapter 4) has hung his uniform on the nail and practices in the neighborhood as a quack .

The former sergeant Lituma sneaks into Father Seferino's communal apartment and prepares to burn the shabby dwelling with kerosene . The question that remains open: will the burning match be thrown?

15th

Varguitas raises money for his wedding. He pulls out all the stops. Genaro advances salary payments, although he does not buy the grandmother's urgent operation from the clerk. Not only financial hurdles have to be overcome. Who trusts someone who is not yet of legal age? Pascual (see 1st chapter) finds the stopgap solution. The lad has a cousin who is also trusted as mayor in Chincha .

16

The young aristocrat Joaquín Hinostroza Bellmont, a drunkard, is no good. His girlfriend Sarita Huanca Salaverría, who pretends to be Marimacho, always helps him out of the worst. Sarita can play soccer. In incest, she has a child with her brother Richard and has refused to men ever since. Joaquín does not give up. After the penniless death of his father, his career as a football referee is looking up. So he helps the Peruvians to victory by successively removing all Argentines from the field. Finally, he whistles the game Bolivia against Peru. The action on the lawn - suddenly a bullfight - gets out of hand for the two security guards in charge, Captain Lituma and Sergeant Jaime Concha. There is murder and manslaughter. Quite a few people known to the radio listener perform in the stadium. Their names and fates are twisted and mixed together. The family of three Don Sebastián Bergua should not be missing. After the mass panic , the three are the first to be crushed into “human puree”. Sarita escapes the crowd in the stands by jumping down to the bullfighter Bellmont. Captain Lituma punishes the violation with shooting. Bellmont also dies in the hail of bullets. Lituma, the policeman with the impeccable personnel file, straightened himself with the last bullet. Sergeant Jaime Concha shoots the still naked black from Chapter 4. Jaime Concha is hanged by the mob . The question that remains: is the slaughter going on?

17th

Varguitas is married to Aunt Julia after an odyssey through a number of villages by the mayor of Grocio Prado after his birth certificate was forged. The groom is suddenly 21 years old. Although the bride and groom had to spend the night in a shameful room on the way before they got married, they simply brought the wedding night forward and enjoyed it extensively.

18th

The love of Crisanto Maravillas, the Bard of Lima, for Fátima ends - how could it be otherwise? - tragic. The little nun with the Barefoot Sisters had seduced the ten-year-old lame boy. From then on, Crisanto Maravillas only wanted to love little Fátima carnal. Catholic circles were able to prevent this. In future it remained with platonic love. When the gifted musician gives a concert in the presence of the Bishop of Lima in the monastery of the Barefoot Sisters, the walls collapse during an earthquake and bury the entire audience, including the actors. Some dead had already perished during the soccer game / bullfight (see above).

19th

Pedro Camacho had to be taken to the madhouse. After the bride and groom returned to Lima, Varguitas' father, who had arrived from the USA, arranged for Aunt Julia's departure to Chile . The unhappy wife is staying with her aunt in Valparaíso . The father forgives the son. Aunt Julia sells her belongings for a plane ticket to Lima. At home, the couple really loves each other. Aunt Julia then helps the husband with his new story "The Blessed and Father Nicolás".

20th

After eight years of marriage, Varguitas and Aunt Julia split up. They had previously lived in Paris. Varguitas had a degree in Romance Philology . Aunt Julia's successor at Varguitas is his cousin Patricia.

Varguitas always visits Peru once. On that occasion he met Pedro Camacho in the editorial office of the tabloid "Extra" in Lima. The artist no longer writes, but works for Pascual (see chapter 1) as an errand boy. Like his serial hero Lucho Abril Marroquín (Chapter 10), he has a phobia against motor vehicles. So he goes all the way through Lima on foot. Camacho cannot earn a living with his job. So he lets his wife, a prostitute, put up with him. The lady had withheld Vargas Llosa in the previous 19th chapters and is now pulling it out of her back pocket.

Autobiography

The first-person narrator Marito is called Don Mario in Chapter 9. In the seventh chapter his name Varguitas had been revealed. That sounds like Vargas. Like Vargas Llosa, he was born in Arequipa .

At Scheerer you can find information on further details. Vargas Llosa was married to his aunt Julia Urquidi Illanés for eight years. His former wife replied to the novel in 1983 with the text "What little Vargas didn't say".

The author writes about his thorny path to becoming a writer in the Odría period.

reception

• Pedro Camacho was designed after a person whose name Vargas Llosa revealed. He then enforced the temporary ban on the novel in Argentina.
• The author articulates his discomfort with the Peruvian conditions.

words and phrases

The loyal terrier greets the gentleman with a "warm bark".

filming

• In 1990 Jon Amiel's film " Julia and Her Lovers " premiered. Screenwriter William Boyd renamed the first-person narrator Varguitas - played by Keanu Reeves - in Martin Loader and the Pedro Camacho - played by Peter Falk - in Pedro Carmichael. Julia played Barbara Hershey .

Audio book

• Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Adapted by Daniel Howald, directed by Claude Pierre Salmony, spoken by André Jung , Christoph Bantzer . Schweizer Radio DRS / Der Hörbuchverlag, Munich 2010 (10 CD)

literature

• Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler, Volk und Welt Verlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 198.7, without ISBN (Licensor: Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1985)

Secondary literature

• Thomas M. Scheerer : Mario Vargas Llosa. Life and work. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-518-38289-6
• Norbert Lentzen: Literature and Society: Studies on the relationship between reality and fiction in the novels of Mario Vargas Llosas. Romanistischer Verlag, Bonn 1994 (Diss. RWTH Aachen 1994), ISBN 3-86143-053-3

Remarks

1. ↑ The first-person narrator makes it clear that Aunt Julia is the sister of his uncle's wife (edition used, p. 141, 3. Zvo).
2. ↑ To this woman the author dedicates the novel in gratitude (edition used, p. 5).
3. ↑ The edition used contains printing errors (see for example p. 21, 12. Zvo, p. 132, 10. Zvo, p. 248, 8. Zvo, p. 249, 1. Zvo, p. 257, 11. Zvo, S. 281, 13. Zvo and S. 389, 16. Zvo).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Thomas Brovot. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011.
2. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler. Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition, Berlin 1987, p. 250, 12. Zvu
3. ↑ Scheerer, p. 104, 10th Zvu
4. ↑ Lentzen, pp. 78,12. Zvo
5. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler. Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition, Berlin 1987, p. 323, 1st Zvo
6. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler. Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition, Berlin 1987, p. 140, 9. Zvo
7. ↑ Lentzen, p. 80, 3rd Zvu
8. ↑ eng. Castrovirreyna Province
9. ↑ span. Mendocita
10. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler. Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition, Berlin 1987, p. 330, 4th Zvo
11. ↑ span. Grocio Prado
12. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler. Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition, Berlin 1987, p. 175, 9. Zvo
13. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler. Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition, Berlin 1987, p. 296, 1st Zvu
14. ↑ Scheerer, pp. 99-100
15. ↑ Lentzen, p. 75, 5. Zvu, p. 79, 11. Zvu and p. 80, 11. Zvo
16. ↑ Scheerer, p. 99 below
17. ↑ Lentzen, p. 59, 3rd Zvu
18. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the art writer. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Heidrun Adler. Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition, Berlin 1987, p. 26, 13. Zvo