"Julius was born in a mansion on Salaverry Avenue, directly across from the old San Felipe Hippodrome." Life-size Disney characters and cowboy movie heroes romp across the walls of his nursery. Out in the carriage house, his great-grandfather's ornate, moldering carriage takes him on imaginary adventures. But Julius's father is dead, and his beautiful young mother passes through her children's lives like an ephemeral shooting star. Despite the soft shelter of family and money, hard realities overshadow Julius's expanding world, just as the rugged Andes loom over his home in Lima. This lyrical, richly textured novel, first published in 1970 as Un mundo para Julius, opens new territory in Latin American literature with its focus on the social elite of Peru. A member of that elite, Bryce Echenique incisively charts the decline of an influential, centuries-old aristocratic family who becomes nouveaux riches with the invasion of foreign capital in the 1950s. A World for Julius, his first novel, marks the first appearance in English of this important Peruvian writer, whose Latin American postmodern fiction has won critical acclaim throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Bryce brings in this novel an accurate description of the high class life in Lima in the 50's. I felt absorbed by his simple and elegant description of individuals and situations typical of the times. Julius is a genious of a boy who can register in his mind and in words the feelings and attitudes of the grown-ups that have a life full of frivolous encounters and parties, bullfights, and who continue on this course despite the tremendous differences in the two social strata that Bryce describes so well.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
the growing pains of a small child; and reflections on peruvian society
1 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Julius starts the novel around 4 years old; and it ends as he is turning 11. Julius is the youngest child and youngest son of a very wealth Peruvian family but as the novel starts, Julius has just lost his father and will lose other people who are important to him in the years ahead. These include the family servants with whom Julius forms emotional bonds that are at least as close as those with his mother. And the novel brings out well how difficult this is for all parties; and the kind of fates that await Peruvian servants in the 1950s. The incidents are both tragic and comic - frequently both.
That said, this novel runs to 430 long pages; and I found them long. I suspect this has something to do with the translation. While relatively idiomatic, it doesn't really hold the attention as writing. And you know something is going a bit awry when you find the word 'noggin' turning up a couple times out of the blue. And when a character is introduced as 'Miss Decisive" - for her name later to be abbreviated to 'Deci'...Clearly the text poses problems to the translator. They haven't all been solved.
That said, this novel runs to 430 long pages; and I found them long. I suspect this has something to do with the translation. While relatively idiomatic, it doesn't really hold the attention as writing. And you know something is going a bit awry when you find the word 'noggin' turning up a couple times out of the blue. And when a character is introduced as 'Miss Decisive" - for her name later to be abbreviated to 'Deci'...Clearly the text poses problems to the translator. They haven't all been solved.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is, with no doubt, the brightest book of this exceptional peruvian writer. Bryce has the ability to make you cry and laugh as you identify your own growing experience with the life of the main character, a little boy named Julius. The author makes us see why some things that have no importance when we are a kids later become the center of our existence, such as looks, political opinion or social status. This novel is delightful and is written with really good taste and sensibility. Since you begin to read it, you will find yourself trapped in a beatiful and sharp story about the social realitys of southamerican countries.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic novel
This novel perfectly depicts a certain level of society at a certain time - whilst being funny and well-written, it is also very cleverly executed. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Laura Auerbach
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful
An extraordinary storie about the Lima of the 70's from a "smart" child view point. Acutte (in his own way), ironic, nice... that's Alfredo Bryce.
Published on 10 Feb 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, Sensitive, and Real,,.I have to read it again!!!
Bryce Echenique shows us Peru and Peruvian culture the way it really was. Mentiones real places i wen to, Schools I attended and people I can identify with. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best of peruvian literature
A young boy tries to find his world in the middle of saddness, fustration and poorness. Superb!!!
Published on 27 April 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best 70's Peruvian book!
Two main things are perfectly drawn in this book: The life of peruvian good-people in that decade, and the way a child tries to understand this way of life he has to live. Read more
Published on 1 April 1998
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