Nobel Laureate Speaks at the Americas Society

Mario Vargas Llosa on his latest novel, Mexican politics, and why he'll never stop writing.

Nobel laureate for literature Mario Vargas Llosa was at the Americas Society last Monday to promote his newest book, The Dream of the Celt, published this summer in English.

“What do you read when you write?” asked Edith Grossman, who translated his latest and many of his previous books. This simple question produced an extended conversation in which Vargas Llosa described his passion for rereading his most influential authors.

The author came off as an affable speaker, an intellectual who has been deeply involved in politics, moving comfortably from William Faulkner to the latest elections in Mexico. Faulkner’s structure and his organization of time were recurrent themes in the conversation. Vargas Llosa discussed the author with a contagious passion: “I think Faulkner is the major influence in practically all Latin American novelists in my generation,” he said.

Vargas Llosa did not hesitate to bring up his love-hate relationship with Jean Paul Sartre, whose personality and early work captivated Vargas Llosa in his youth.

“I read him voraciously, and I believed him,” he said. “I believed him, and this is is something I regret so much.”

Vargas Llosa said his fascination lasted until the end of the sixties when he distanced himself from Sartre’s ideas, ultimately to the point of hating him. He thinks Sartre will be remembered more as an icon and a figure of his time than as a literary author....

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