Don Rigoberto - a rather grey insurance executive by day, a dedicated pornographer and sexual enthusiast by night - misses Lucrecia, his estranged second wife. He desperately compensates for her absence by filling his notebooks with a steamy mix of memory and sexual fantasy. Husband and wife have been separated for a year because of a sexual encounter between Rigoberto's pre-pubescent son Alfonso and his stepmother. Alfonso is a strange fey creature of angelic appearance and apparently diabolical impulses - more seducer than seduced despite his age. He visits Lucrecia's house without his father's knowledge and insists that he wants his parents to make up, having apparently forgotten the incident that caused the original break-up. Meanwhile, Rigoberto and Lucrecia are each receiving highly erotic letters which each believe to have been sent by the other but may well have been written by Alfonso. Add to all this the notebooks at the core of the novel and the reader is drawn into Don Rigoberto's own confusion between imagination and physical reality. The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto is a funny, sexy, disquieting and very compelling novel that is one of Vargas Llosa's finest works.
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About the Author
With novels including The War of the End of the World, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto and The Feast of the Goat, Mario Vargas Llosa has established an international reputation as one of the Latin America's most important authors.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Elizabeth Taylor
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
The subject of this book is a little hard to describe so its perhaps easier to describe the principle protaganists. Firstly there is Don Rigoberto, an insurance executive, who believes his true brilliance lies in his ability to be imaganitive in the world of sexual fantasy. He delights in the body of his wife and the sexual games, fantasies and pleasure he can obtain in her company. He has nothing but loathing for the pornography or a society that punishes someone for following their fantasies and parts of the book are simply venting letters to what he perceives as narrow minded fools - unwilling to allow the individual to fulfill his fantasies. There is the estranged wife Donna Lucretia who spends her time having tea with her stepson, she is a somewhat remote character as we mainly perceive her through the sexual fantasies of her husband and son. Then lastly there is the stepson Fonchito, a strange teenage boy obsessed with the painter Schiele and clearly intelligent and fully aware of his father's fantasies and just as inerested in fantasies of his own which also involve Donna Lucretia. Schiele's paintings mainly portrayed naked women in various poses and there was some scandal associated with his life as many of the models where young girls. Fonchito's life does not seem to involve normal persuits such as football or nights out but is an increasing obsession with the life of the painter - and his personality slowly but surely seems to overwhelm that of Donna Lucreatia, so the relation of step-mother and son becomes something else a little more darker.
The story if there is one is how Don Rigaberto and Donna Lucretia cope with a separation caused by an event sexual of course which becomes apparent half way through the book. There is a lot of musing by Don Rigoberto on his perceived success in the domain of sexual fantasy and how he is proud that he has allowed this to dominate his life. The ranting letters to for example the owners of Penthouse are very amusing stuff, but, most of his musings are related to his wife.
The book is intesesting if only for the construction as throughout the book the discussions between the individuals allow us to understand both why the couple broke up and outlines their somewhat unusual relationships based mainly on a mutual desire to provide pleasuse through fantasises. The son is extremely clever and manipulative and although some of the passages regarding the artist Schiele go on somewhat. The real interest of the book is the fact that we are never sure who is saying what to whom, and what is a fantasy and what is the truth so in the end this is an intersting study of human nature and how we interact with one another.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book proves to be an excellent primer for those wishing to acquaint themselves with the work of Vargas LLosa.
The central character is a libertine, liberal and financially-comfortable insurance salesman from Lima. His notebooks are an intricate collection of his inner thoughts and recollections of married life.
As each character, adventure and aspect of human behaviour is presented, readers will be rewarded with examples of Vargas Llosa's style and will not be disappointed.
As opposed to much of his earlier work, although set in Lima, the book unfortunately does not offer a revealing account of Peruvian life. This detracts slightly from what is a very enjoyable piece of literature.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By owen
Format:Paperback
Truly special work, which reads like Mario is having the time of his life writing it. Everything is in here, uniquely imaginative eroticism (in fairly large doses), impish humour (which pervades the whole book), philosophy, introspection, marvellous characters (the maid being a personal favourite - that mix of scolding and indulgence is perfectly weighted), wit, art theory, superb dialogue, and a real storytelling genuis - all those failed stories mentioned in the presumably autobiographical Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter here take on a life of their own. Mario writes like a mature mind looking back over a lifetime of thinking, seeing, and riske endeavours and chuckling about it all. The essay on football/nationalism alone is worth the entrance fee, though so many scenes spring to mind. Wonderful!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
The notebooks of Don Rigoberto
A tawrdry piece of work, in spite of the plaudits. Seemed more like an exercise in showing off by Mr Vargas.... Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2007 by Nomad
3.0 out of 5 stars
hard going
The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto starts promsingly enough, but really just seems to go in circles and never seems to get anywhere. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2003 by simon gurney
5.0 out of 5 stars
fantastic,brilliant
Llosa at his best, brillant and engrossin
Published on 9 Feb 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully written, humourous, erudite and anarchic
This is undoubtably Vargas Llosa's finest work. A humourous narrative style compliments an impressively compelling, if not disturbing storyline. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2000
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