A review by bobbo49
Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa

adventurous challenging dark informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A challenging book to read and to review.  Peru in the 1950s and 1960s, under the dictatorship of Odría Amoretti, as experienced from the perspective of a wide variety of characters telling their overlapping stories.   Sometimes very confusing, as different people are talking in alternating paragraphs and given names are mixed with nicknames, but overall a very compelling and highly personalized description of the lives and struggles - political, social, personal - of a wide swath of Peruvian society.