The Language of Passion

Internationally acclaimed novelist Mario Vargas Llosa has contributed a biweekly column to Spain's major newspaper, El País, since 1977. In this collection of columns from the 1990s, Vargas Llosa weighs in on the burning questions of the last decade, including the travails of Latin American democracy, the role of religion in civic life, and the future of globalization. But Vargas Llosa's influence is hardly limited to politics. In some of the liveliest critical writing of his career, he makes a pilgrimage to Bob Marley's shrine in Jamaica, celebrates the sexual abandon of Carnaval in Rio, and examines the legacies of Vermeer, Bertolt Brecht, Frida Kahlo, and Octavio Paz, among others.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

Internationally acclaimed novelist Mario Vargas Llosa has contributed a biweekly column to Spain's major newspaper, El País, since 1977. In this collection of columns from the 1990s, Vargas Llosa weighs in on the burning questions of the last decade, including the travails of Latin American democracy, the role of religion in civic life, and the future of globalization. But Vargas Llosa's influence is hardly limited to politics. In some of the liveliest critical writing of his career, he makes a pilgrimage to Bob Marley's shrine in Jamaica, celebrates the sexual abandon of Carnaval in Rio, and examines the legacies of Vermeer, Bertolt Brecht, Frida Kahlo, and Octavio Paz, among others.

Author's Note
Touchstone

The Lady from Somerset
Shadows of Friends
The Morality of Cynics
Postmodernism and Frivolity
Tragicomedy of a Jew
God Will Provide
Aid for the First World
Italy Is Not Bolivia
The Death of the Great Writer
Trench Town Rock
The Prince of Doom
Under the Skies of Jerusalem
French Identity
The Sign of the Cross
Ceausescu's House
The Joys of Necrophilia
The Old Man with the Bunions
A Bourgeios Paradise
Cassandra's Prophecies
The Immigrants
The Devil's Advocate
A Defense of Sects
A Walk through Hebron
Seven Years, Seven Days
Nudes in a Classical Garden
Epitaph for a Library
The Hour of the Charlatans
Elephant Dung
A Maiden
Mandela's Island
The Other Side of Paradise
Painting to Survive
The Language of Passion
The City of Nests
The Unborn Child
New Inquisitions
The Weaker Sex
Predators
The Permanent Erection
The Lost Battle of Monsieur Monet
A Death So Sweet
Fataumata's Feet
The Suicide of a Nation
The Alexandrian
The Life and Trials of Eliá n
Pernicious Futility

Index