Peruvian writer refers to his close friendship with José Donoso and stresses its fundamental value in the development of Latin American literature.
Jimena Villegas
Mario Vargas Llosa and José Donoso met, as befitted those years a couple of writers born in Latin America eager to cosmopolitanism and cultural environment in the Old World.
Spain was the country that welcomed them. How to transfer to all those who, in the late 60's and early 70's, had body and soul dedicated to shaping the biggest literary phenomenon spontaneously out of "West Indian": so-called boom of Latin American novels. Together
experienced some of that golden age and bustling, full of social, full of diverse creative, full of stories, novels, essays and stories. Together also, as noted by the Peruvian writer, discovered the true universal value to be natives of Latin America. In their common history, there were many moments of everyday life and pedestrian, but also unforgettable and intense days of literary debate, encouraged by his strong disagreements on the issue.
In his time at Barcelona, \u200b\u200bfor him the first of his whole life he could devote himself to writing only because it had managed to start living the exploits of his pen laureate and the author of The Green House recalls with particular fondness the figures of Pepe and Pilar. Donoso marriage was part of the weekend and the home of the Vargas Llosa, who were neighbors as well as professional colleagues. That until the couple began Chilean trip back to Chile, a few years after the birth of Pilarcita, his only daughter.
"For me," said the Peruvian writer from London to Que Pasa, "the death of Pepe is doubly sad, because in addition to respect as a writer was a dear friend. I must say that his absence left me and my family a big gap. "
- When and how did you meet José Donoso?
- We met in the late 60's when he lived in Pollensa (Mallorca), and I was writing The Obscene Bird of Night, plunged into this world in body and soul. Since then our friendship was very steady, without a shadow. In the 70 live together in Barcelona, \u200b\u200bin an era that was the golden age of literature Hispanic, known in Europe, promoted from Spain around the world. One of the figures who lived this experience was that of José Donoso.
- What did it mean for you Donovan?
- I admired him as a writer, and loved him as a person, share important moments, both in his literary work as mine. He and I forged in the discussion. Fortunately our literary tastes often differ, so our conversations and discussions were delicious.
- How do you visualize your death within the literary context of Latin America?
- His death is a great loss. It is one of the most important writers who have had English literature in the contemporary era. He gave a very personal tone to the novel and away from the regionalist tradition of Latin American realism traditional, modernized tremendously. That's because on the one hand, a broad literary culture, his knowledge of English literature that was what he preferred, and also his personal contribution to an original world, wealthy, and very original imagery , a world built in his image and likeness, which turned their hobbies, their fantasies, their most secret fantasies, and also built with great skill, that of a profound knowledge of the technical resources of modern literature .
- What works stand out from your work?
- His work is diverse. It seems to me clearly underlines The Obscene Bird of Night, as Perhaps the most ambitious of the novels he wrote. But it was also a great writer of short stories or novellas. These would emphasize the place without boundaries. Despite its brevity, this is a very complex, very difficult to conduct, in which he, to me, reached true perfection.
- You said that he was a very literary writer.
- Yes, it was, perhaps among all the writers I have known, the most literary: literature was what really mattered. And although there are other things he cared, I never got any to dispute the title to the literature. He modeled his life in a literary way, how to build a fictional world, lived the other experiences from a very literary point of view and I think that is reflected in his work, which, although it has a vitality and roots in the experience, also draws on his vast reading and his great knowledge of modern literature in many languages.
- In that sense there is a major point of agreement between the choice of Donovan and his. You say that literature is his life and actually living from writing.
- I think we had many common points. For us, literature was an essential commitment. Both we felt that the only way you can write is giving in body and soul to the literary vocation, that literature can not be in any way a chore weekend or holidays, but that's due to the work on time, energy, dedication that is put into what for one is paramount.
- Are there other things I approach him?
- We also agree on our way of seeing Latin America as a continent without borders, deeply united in a common experience of language, history. Both were very suspicious of regionalism, the indigenous, all these streams of limited horizon and provincial, that the preceding generation grown in Latin America. So even though he had a great love for Chile, and this is reflected greatly in his work, his vision was never regionalism, but a horizon that overflowed the borders. I think this is also required him in his literary projects and this is reflected in the universality of its readers.
- However, it seems that there was a wide divergence in their views politically and economically. He was highly critical of the Chilean economic liberalism, an option that you defend vigorously.
- He never could have accepted that I defend liberalism and propose, because the idea of \u200b\u200bletting the economy work left to individual initiative, that state intervention is minimal, that the individual is the focus of social life and in no way the State, were notions that Pepe did not know he could not accept and against having an almost visceral rejection. He was very attached to tradition, and was critical of the new policy of openness and market performance. I think that's a world that Pepe did not know or understand, or could come to love. Its social and economic world had more to do with the field with the city, tradition with modernity.
- Can we say, then, that in his nature he was like a traditional country sir?
- Well, the world I felt a fondness and a deep solidarity was the rural society, almost patriarchal ... feudal say no because it would be an injustice to him. No, it was feudal, but a man with a special attachment to a certain tradition. And although very wary of the new rich, the capitalist, the entrepreneur, however had a bow, very literary on the other hand, by the great master farmer and hearty. I think his political ideas had more to do with fiction than reality, though, of course, never put into question its commitment to freedom and legality, and its rejection of dictatorship.
- and how they behave in everyday life?
- Pepe was a perfectly affordable, which is defended an excessive invasion of privacy, but in the privacy of family and friends was a man really charming, funny, a great raconteur, very affectionate, very generous with his friendship, really a beautiful person. I think that neither politics nor economics interested him the least, unless something essential was at stake, such as freedom or human rights violated. There, yes, of course, but both for ethical and aesthetic. But he despised the policy itself as linked to the worst of human beings. I do not know if he ever said so, but that's my impression. The only thing that impressed, and moved him stimulated him was what related to his family or what was tied to that little human geography was that of friends and the next.
Apparently, it seems that he was quite scared to death and it means nothing.
- I would not say that. He had great fascination for old age and disease, in whom it was almost a vocation and if found in both books is no accident. Maybe if I recall, the most entertaining talks and Pepe were witches who had to do with the old and the sick. He played it a little. It was an old early to be playing old when he was a young man, and cultivated their diseases and other flowers grow your garden, with true love. Game and also had a spell in the world of old and sick, which no doubt hid also very curious about what comes next.
- What elements are believed to help you stay in the literature?
- I know your work will last. His ambition, which is that of a writer, to generate a work that transcends what is going to be, reading will be followed by future generations. I have no doubt about that whatsoever and, of course, I think it's the best thing to happen to a writer like him.
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