![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
Jan. 4th, 2008 10:44 amI haven’t finished The Bad Girl yet, although I’m enjoying it a great deal. The language is beautiful. I’m never sure, when reading a book that has been translated, who exactly I should credit (mentally) for gorgeous turns of phrase. Vargas Llosa? Or Edith Grossman? I think maybe I’ll look for a copy of the original next, to compare the two.
The Bad Girl character puts me in mind of Scarlett O’Hara in many ways. Well, my memory of Scarlett O’Hara, at least, since I haven’t re-read Gone With the Wind since high school. Money is security for her, and security is the most important thing. Ricardo, the Good Boy, reminds me of Ashley Wilkes – sort of bland and good but extremely passive and without a huge amount of color (which makes him a good narrator). She keeps reappearing in his life, so perhaps his obsession is not one-sided. Certainly she feels something or sees something in him that she needs -maybe just uncritical adoration- because Ricardito certainly doesn’t have the financial heft that her other lovers, husbands and companions have.
Between the Bad Girl and the Good Boy, VL has written perhaps the most awkward, painful-sounding love scene I’ve read in a long time. I haven’t really figured out the purpose, other than maybe to illustrate the unbalanced nature of their relationship.
The Bad Girl character puts me in mind of Scarlett O’Hara in many ways. Well, my memory of Scarlett O’Hara, at least, since I haven’t re-read Gone With the Wind since high school. Money is security for her, and security is the most important thing. Ricardo, the Good Boy, reminds me of Ashley Wilkes – sort of bland and good but extremely passive and without a huge amount of color (which makes him a good narrator). She keeps reappearing in his life, so perhaps his obsession is not one-sided. Certainly she feels something or sees something in him that she needs -maybe just uncritical adoration- because Ricardito certainly doesn’t have the financial heft that her other lovers, husbands and companions have.
Between the Bad Girl and the Good Boy, VL has written perhaps the most awkward, painful-sounding love scene I’ve read in a long time. I haven’t really figured out the purpose, other than maybe to illustrate the unbalanced nature of their relationship.
