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conversación en la catedral is a novel written by peruvian author mario vargas llosa and released in 1969.
i have to start this review by saying that my relation with vargas llosa's body of work is conflictive. while i've enjoyed most books by him i've read, they always feel like they're missing this "click", or whatever, that make them the absolute classics that they are. i'm not trying to discredit him though! he's clearly a great writer, and most of his books have become popular with both readers and critics for a reason, it's not random, and in fact i'd go as far to say that he's one of my all time favourite writers, even if i don't think he has a "perfect" novel for me, with an exception.
the exception to this rule is also the one that took me the most time to read and the one i'm talking about today; conversación en la catedral; probably one of the longest novels i've read.
to put you in context, i've always wanted to have *this* book, and when i finally found it in a street fair, i was extatic, immediatly buying it. i started reading it a week after, since i was finishing another book (los autonautas de la cosmopista, by julio cortazar, about who i have to write something sometime, maybe about what i'm planning to read next from him, his last book deshoras, but let's not get ahead of ourselves).
the book starts with what arguably is the greatest opening line of latin american books ever: "Desde la puerta de La Crónica, Santiago mira la avenida Tacna sin amor. Automóviles, edificios desiguales y descoloridos, esqueletos de avisos luminosos flotando en la neblina, el mediodía día gris. ¿En qué momento se había jodido el Perú?". i honestly believe the book goes slightly downhill from it; not because the book is *bad* (in fact, it's excellent, but more on that later), more because that line is actually an all-timer great opening; not even the most skilled writer could match it for a whole book
storywise, it follows in my opinion the life of five main characters during the (real) dictatorship of manuel odría in perú; santiago zavala, a journalist, fermín zavala, his father and a businessman who is supported by the dictatorship, cayo bermudez, one of the most important officials in the dictatorship, ambrosio, the driver of fermín zavala, and amalia, his wife. all these stories end up connecting with each other at some point or another, with some of them fusing as one, while others constantly get in the way of eachother although not completely becoming one.
the book tells these five stories at the same time with the meeting of santiago and ambrosio in a bar called (you guessed it) la catedral working as a unifying thread; they tell eachother everything that we're reading, in fact, sometimes you'll have them talking over the story of another character as a mean of transmitting that this is all a conversation taking place
i'd say that the book is about mediocrity all over; santiago leaves university and his left-wing ideals behind, fermín stops receiving the support of odría, making it extremely hard for him to maintain his business afloat, bermudez is made to resign to his position, and ambrosio and amalia fail to make a return on an investment they make near the end of their storyline, to name only an example for each main character
the few last pages are probably the only point where the novel reaches total perfection (other than on the starting line); ambrosio tells santiago what he has been doing to survive for the last few months in a very interesting monologue, there are also some moments where it gets very close; santiago's days at university, being in leftwing circles against the dictatorship which supports his father financially are another very high point.
as a negative, i have to say that sometimes the book feels like it's written in a way to maximize pagecount; the amalia storyline starts way too early in my opinion, when it could've perfectly started when she met ambrosio, her segments felt like the low point of the novel most of the times, but it's not going to ruin anyone's experience, in fact, even being the low points, they are quite fun to read, although not as fun as santiago's story, for example
anyway, i think this book is vargas llosa's masterpiece. it is a 700 pages book that feels like it's 400, with most parts being worth it. if you're interested in vargas llosa's work, or latin american literature in general, this is a must read, although maybe you'd do better starting somewhere else, specially if you struggle with long books. 10/10