The language of passion : selected commentary / Mario Vargas Llosa ; [translated by Natasha Wimmer]

Includes index.

First published in Spain under the title "El lenguaje del pasion" by Grupo Santillana de Ediciones S.A.

Machine generated contents note: The Ladyfrom Somerset 3 -- Shadows of Friends 8 -- The Morality of Cynics 15 -- Postmodernism and Frivolity 22 -- Tragicomedy of a Jew 28 -- God Will Provide 33 -- Aidfor the First World 38 -- Italy Is Not Bolivia 44 -- The Death of the Great Writer 50 -- Trench Town Rock 55 -- The Prince of Doom 61 -- Under the Skies of Jerusalem 68 -- French Identity 76 -- The Sign of the Cross 82 -- Ceausescu's House 87 -- The Joys of Necrophilia 94 -- The Old Man with the Bunions 101 -- A Bourgeois Paradise 107 -- Cassandra's Prophecies 113 -- The Immigrants 119 -- The Devil's Advocate 125 -- A Defense of Sects 131 -- A Walk through Hebron 136 -- Seven Years, Seven Days 143 -- Nudes in a Classical Garden 150 -- Epitaph for a Library 156 -- The Hour of the Charlatans 162 -- Elephant Dung 167 -- A Maiden 172 -- Mandela's Island 177 -- The Other Side of Paradise 183 -- Painting to Survive 190 -- The Language of Passion 195 -- The City of Nests 201 -- The Unborn Child 207 -- New Inquisitions 213 -- The Weaker Sex 218 -- Predators 223 -- The Permanent Erection 229 -- The Lost Battle of Monsieur Monet 235 -- A Death So Sweet 240 -- Fataumata' Feet 245 -- The Suicide of a Nation 251 -- The Alexandrian 257 -- The Life and Trials of Elidn 264 -- Pernicious Futility 272.

Ten years of world-class journalism from one of Latin America's most influential and controversial men of letters Since 1977, Mario Vargas Llosa has contributed a biweekly column to Spain's major newspaper, El PaÍs. Dubbed "Touchstone," and read in syndication by Spanish-speaking readers around the globe, the column is renowned--in some circles, notorious--for skewering the excesses of the Latin American left and championing classic liberalism and free-market democracy. In this collection of columns from the 1990s, Vargas Llosa weighs in on the burning questions of the last decade, including the travails of Latin American democracy, the role of religion in civic life, and the future of globalization. But Vargas Llosa's influence is hardly limited to politics. In some of the liveliest critical writing of his career, he makes a pilgrimage to Bob Marley's shrine in Jamaica, celebrates the sexual abandon of Carnival in Rio, and examines the legacy of Vermeer, Bertolt Brecht, Frida Kahlo, and Octavio Paz, among others. Vargas Llosa is a model of the engaged writer: whatever his subject, he brings to bear the intelligence, wit, tolerance, and moral seriousness that are the hallmark of his nonfiction.