The Way to Paradise

From Publishers Weekly
Postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin's dramatic life inspired Somerset Maugham's classic The Moon and Sixpence; now Vargas Llosa takes his turn re-imagining the artist's story in an intricately detailed novel that also chronicles the life of Gauguin's feminist-socialist grandmother, Flora Trist n. Splitting the narrative between Trist n's tour of France in 1844, which she made to recruit support for her Workers Union, and Gauguin's life after landing in Tahiti in 1891, Vargas Llosa shows how each sought something-be it social reform or artistic truth-greater than themselves. The illegitimate child of a Peruvian man and a French woman, Trist n flees her villainous husband and makes her way to Peru, where she hopes to claim her inheritance from her late father's Peruvian relatives. When she fails, she returns to Europe and throws herself into radical politics. Gauguin's story is better known-the abdication of bourgeois existence for art; the brief, conflicted cohabitation with Van Gogh; the voyage to Tahiti; the sexual escapades there, and the ravages of syphilis; the final voyage to the Marquesas Islands-and Vargas Llosa tells it carefully. His twin tales achieve force and momentum through the sheer accumulation of detail and the relentlessly chronicled physical decline of both protagonists. But though usually a master of rhetoric and tone, Vargas Llosa loses his footing here, syncopating his account with second-person remarks that condescend to his characters ("Alas, Florita! It was all for the best that it hadn't happened, wasn't it?"; "[Y]ou weren't dreaming of anything so foolish, were you, Paul?"). Flora Trist n deserves to be better known, and this novel should accomplish that goal. But despite Wimmer's excellent translation, Vargas Llosa's latest too often feels like a weighty, unwieldy account of two exciting lives, which does neither its subjects nor its author's past artistry a service. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The great Peruvian man of letters is truly at home in the world at large. He knows the world as only a true cosmopolite does, writing knowledgeably about places far from his native Andean land. Following the staggering historical novel Feast of the Goat (2001), about dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Vargas Llosa now offers another prodigious novel rather in the same vein. It is also a fictional biography--a dual fictional biography, in this case--of the early-nineteenth-century French-Peruvian workers'-rights activist Flora Tristan and her grandson, famous painter Paul Gauguin. In alternating chapters, the author meticulously fashions portraits of these two vibrant individuals as he follows Flora in touring France to carry out her campaign to promote labor organization and equality in marriage, and Paul in awakening to his innate sexuality, to say nothing of tapping into his formidable artistic talent, by abandoning France for the South Pacific. The necessity of personal freedom to express oneself and accomplish one's life's work is at the heart of this novel, which is ripe with detail but never sinks under the plentitude. His avid readership will stand even firmer in their conviction that the truth of Vargas Llosa's genius lies in his ability to deliver vastly intelligent novels that nevertheless pulse with sensuality. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"The bold, dynamic and endlessly productive imagination of Vargas Llosa, one of the writing giants of our time, is something truly to be admired...In this, the master novelist's first truly international novel, the canvases light up with the glow of his passion."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"Oddly affecting...an engrossing, sometimes horrifying image of social conditions in France [from] one of the great Latin American novelists."
--The New York Times Book Review
"With matchless empathy and insight, the great author analyzes two contrasting quests for the ideal...It's hard to believe, but Vargas Llosa just keeps getting better. What are the Swedes waiting for?"
--Kirkus Reviews
"Through his characters Vargas Llosa [captures] much of the liberationist spirit of the 19th century, the great romantic desire to escape the cramping bonds of tradition, whatever the cost. His stylistic virtuosity with authorial voice commands ambition."
--Washington Post
"Masterful....Vargas Llosa's florid but exacting style is mesmerizing, as is his choice of two characters whose drastically opposing belief systems only make their rare moments of connection more sublime."
--Time Out New York



Review
"A fierce, edgy and enthralling book...Mr. Vargas Llosa has pushed the boundaries of the traditional historical novel, and in doing so has written a book of harrowing power and lasting resonance." --The New York Times

"[Vargas Llosa] is one of our greatest and most influential novelists. His new novel confirms his importance. In the world of fiction his continued exploration of the often-perilous intersection of politics and life has enriched 20th century literature . . . In The Feast of the Goat, Vargas Llosa paints a portrait that is darkly comic, poignant, admirable and horrifying all at once." --Los Angeles Times

"The book brings readers to the precipice of terror and lets us look into the abyss of cruelty as it poses and answers the question: Why do people not oppose dictators? . . . He has by his body of work already secured a place as one of the monumental writers of our time."--The Boston Globe

"With the publication of The Feast of the Goat, Vargas Llosa reassumes his place as one of the world's most important contemporary novelists." --USA Today



Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book

Flora Tristán, the illegitimate child of a wealthy Peruvian father and French mother, grows up in poverty and journeys to Peru to demand her inheritance. On her return in 1844, she makes her name as a champion of the downtrodden, touring the French countryside to recruit members for her Workers' Union.
In 1891, Flora's grandson, struggling painter and stubborn visionary Paul Gauguin, abandons his wife and five children for life in the South Seas, where his dreams of paradise are poisoned by syphilis, the stifling forces of French colonialism, and a chronic lack of funds, though he has his pick of teenage Tahitian lovers and paints some of his greatest works.
Flora died before her grandson was born, but their travels and obsessions unfold side by side in this double portrait, a rare study in passion and ambition, as well as the obstinate pursuit of greatness in the face of illness and death.



About the Author
Mario Vargas Llosa is the author of over fourteen books, including The Language of Passion, Letters to a Young Novelist, and The Feast of the Goat. He was the recipient of the PEN/Nabokov Award in 2002 and lives in London.



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With matchless empathy and insight, the great Peruvian author analyzes two contrasting quests for the ideal. Dual narratives alternate the stories of two fascinating historical characters: early feminist social activist Flora Tristan (1803-44), of mixed Peruvian and French heritage, and her grandson (who never knew her), the great French rebel-painter Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). Employing both omniscient narration and a teasing, confrontational second-person address, Vargas Llosa (The Language of Passion, 2002, etc.) juxtaposes Flora's pursuit (throughout a tour of southern France) of her vision of an international "Worker's Union" with Gauguin's flight from his Danish wife and five children (in the wake of the 1881 Paris stock market crash) to the South Seas islands, motivated by desires for artistic success and to submerge himself in a "pagan, happy culture, unashamed of the body and untainted by the decadent notion of sin." This is a formidable, learned novel that embraces the conflicting opinions of social theorists (Fourier, Saint-Simon, Proudhon, et al.) with whom Flora does intellectual battle; 19th-century political history, and rival artistic theories and practices (expressed, e.g., in Gauguin's memories of his combative friendship with "the mad Dutchman" Vincent van Gogh). It's also a replete and lively story, whose assured construction and pacing very gradually reveal such crucial life patterns and details as Flora's abandonment of her abusive husband and her children and discovery of sexual fulfillment with a sympathetic Polish demimondaine, and Gauguin's aggressive grasp of liberation, awakening artistic consciousness, and exhausted surrender to the ravages of syphilis. It'sGauguin's conflicted odyssey that stimulates Vargas Llosa's imagination most powerfully. But there isn't a page of this magnificently imagined and orchestrated story that does not vibrate with the energy and mystery of felt, and fully comprehended, life. It's hard to believe, but Vargas Llosa just keeps getting better. What are the Swedes waiting for?


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