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steveatwaywords's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is my first novel by Llosa, and I can only start by calling him one of the more unique storytellers I have read. I was at first a bit disoriented by his approach, not merely that the chapters are told out of chronological and narrative sequence, but that the structures of the two trading narratives are so inherently different.
And this, of course, is a large element of what The Storyteller is about: our main narrator seeks to understand the role of the sacred hablador in the Machiguenga tribe of the Amazon, an indigenous culture less and less removed from his contemporary Peruvian culture. Confronted by the question of whether the modern world can or should leave the indigenous cultures alone, by what might be lost should we intervene, the narrator is compelled to tell his own story from "without," for he can never get past that cultural barrier more sacred than religion. The storyteller hablador carries nothing less than the culture's identity.
What is left but to allow the other narrator to speak as hablador himself? Llosa offers little assistance in explaining what we encounter with this narrator but the words, the structure of the telling, the narrative markers, are all unique, as is the vocabulary of the Machiguenga which employs seemingly only two time words ("before" and "after") and only a single word for any individual, oneself, and the sun ("Tasurinchi"). The effect, once we become accustomed to it, is to literally reframe our own thinking about that outsider question.
Colonization, industrialization, superstition, misogyny, and other difficult themes are explored from this "inside" narrative to, I can only say, great illumination. There is no "noble savage" discourse here, but a thickness of telling reminiscent of LeGuin's style. I thought, too, that a key element of the story also turns Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" on its head, most necessarily.
We can leave a novel with more questions than answers. But in the best of them, as here in the capable hands of a master, our questions emerge more relevant, more nuanced, more true.
And this, of course, is a large element of what The Storyteller is about: our main narrator seeks to understand the role of the sacred hablador in the Machiguenga tribe of the Amazon, an indigenous culture less and less removed from his contemporary Peruvian culture. Confronted by the question of whether the modern world can or should leave the indigenous cultures alone, by what might be lost should we intervene, the narrator is compelled to tell his own story from "without," for he can never get past that cultural barrier more sacred than religion. The storyteller hablador carries nothing less than the culture's identity.
What is left but to allow the other narrator to speak as hablador himself? Llosa offers little assistance in explaining what we encounter with this narrator but the words, the structure of the telling, the narrative markers, are all unique, as is the vocabulary of the Machiguenga which employs seemingly only two time words ("before" and "after") and only a single word for any individual, oneself, and the sun ("Tasurinchi"). The effect, once we become accustomed to it, is to literally reframe our own thinking about that outsider question.
Colonization, industrialization, superstition, misogyny, and other difficult themes are explored from this "inside" narrative to, I can only say, great illumination. There is no "noble savage" discourse here, but a thickness of telling reminiscent of LeGuin's style. I thought, too, that a key element of the story also turns Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" on its head, most necessarily.
We can leave a novel with more questions than answers. But in the best of them, as here in the capable hands of a master, our questions emerge more relevant, more nuanced, more true.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Death
One of the key beliefs of the Machiguenga peoples in the novel is to kill children who are in any way unhealthy. This is related several times through different scenes and stories.
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