Vargas Llosa, Mario

New York. 1985. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1st American Edition. Very Good. No Dustjacket. 0374247765. Translated from the Spanish by Alfred Macadam. 310 pages. hardcover. Jacket design (c) 1985 by Honi Werner. Author photo (c) 1985 by Tom Victor. keywords: Literature Translated Peru Latin America. FROM THE PUBLISHER - The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta is set in the Peru of the near future, a country in the throes of an insurgency pitting a Cuban-Bolivian-backed revolutionary army against a failing Lima government and the U.S. Marines. In the midst of a deteriorating Peru, whose cities have become vast garbage-strewn slums and whose people have lost almost every hope, the book chronicles the narrator's attempt to reconstruct the story of a Trotskyist revolutionary. Alejandro Mayta and his abortive insurrection in the Andes of the late 19505 is seen through the eyes of the people who knew him. While investigating his story, the narrator discovers not one ‘real life' of Alejandro Mayta but instead the confusions of history. The book vividly evokes the world of the Latin American left, not just of the past but of the present as well. Vargas Llosa's vision is one of despair, of indignation, and of the most profound kind of understanding. The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta is a searing account of Latin America as it really is, as well as an extraordinary literary achievement. Vargas Llosa is here at the height of his powers as one of the few writers unflinchingly coming to grips with the great events of his time. inventory #46298 ISBN: 0374247765.