So we went to Mario Vargas Llosa’s event at St. Louis University today.
When I saw Vargas Llosa right in front of me I became very agitated. I tried explaining to N why I was getting so emotional.
“Imagine if that was live Pushkin sitting there!” I said. “How would you feel?”
“Pushkin already is sitting right in the middle of every Russian’s soul,” N deadpanned.
The last time I saw a queue as long as the one people formed to have their books signed by Vargas Llosa was in 1990 in St. Petersoburgh when people were lining up to buy ice-cream in the -30 C weather.
When I came up to the writer and gave him my copy of one of his books to sign, I got so nervous that I suddenly spoke to him in a strong Spanish accent.
“You are from Spain?” Vargas Llosa concluded. “I love Spain.”
I’ll post more on the actual event tomorrow.
Clarissa's Blog 
LOL and you have convinced yet another Spanish speaker that you are a native Spanish speaker.
DId people in Leningrad/St. Petersburg really line up in minus 30 centigrade too buy ice-cream or was that “-” accidental?
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I was one of those people who lined up in freezing cold to get ice-cream.
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Or course MVLl loves Spain;)
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I don’t know if you saw this already, but Vargas Llosa had an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal last week:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/11/mario-vargas-llosa-on-liberty.html
It’s a good sign that Vargas Llosa drew such a big crowd in St. Louis.
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By the way (and you may have covered this elsewhere), if you were giving a recommendation, to someone who has not read any Vargas Llosa before: which of his novels would be a good choice to read first?
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Never mind, I just reread the post from last Wednesday where you recommend Cubs.
What are your thoughts on Conversation in the Cathedral?
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That’s the book I got MVL to sign for me. 🙂
LOVE IT!
As for the writer’s political beliefs, they are frighteningly inane. The funny thing, though, is that he keeps praising free markets and wild capitalism and then publishes a novel (his most recent one) that is a passionate indictment of wild capitalism and free markets. The writer in him always defeats an ideologue, which is great.
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Hum… he is a Liberal, so obviously he ends up struggling with ideological deadlocks. I do not think that the writer in him defeats the ideologue, thus.
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