The Neighborhood (novel)

The Neighborhood (Spanish: Cinco esquinas, lit. 'Five Corners') is a 2016 novel by Mario Vargas Llosa. It was published on 3 March 2016 by Alfaguara in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.[3]

The Neighborhood
First edition cover
AuthorMario Vargas Llosa
Audio read byJulio García[1]
Original titleCinco esquinas
TranslatorEdith Grossman
Cover artistVanja Milicevic[2]
Morgana Vargas Llosa[2]
CountrySpain/Peru
LanguageSpanish
Set inLima
PublisherAlfaguara
Publication date
3 March 2016
Published in English
2018
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pages314
ISBN978-84-204-1896-4
863/.64
LC ClassPQ8498.32.A65 C495 2016

Plot

Set in Lima in the 1990s during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, the editor of the notorious tabloid Exposed, Rolando Garro, is found beaten and stabbed to death and his body left outside a gambling parlor. Enrique Cárdenas and Juan Peineta, both of whom had their reputations destroyed by Exposed, are suspected of killing Garro. Cárdenas was blackmailed by Garro to invest in his tabloid otherwise he would publish nude photos of Cárdenas. Cárdenas refused to meet the demands of Garro and had his reputation damaged when the photos were published. Peineta is a disgraced former television star and, before Garro's death, would send embittered letters to Exposed.

Title

The novel's title, Cinco esquinas, refers to an area in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of the Lima District, where the story is set.[4]

Reception

Kirkus Reviews called the novel a "colorful but confusing and ultimately disappointing work by a great writer."[5]

Publishers Weekly gave the novel a rave review, calling it a "audacious and skillful" and comparing it to Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice.[6]

Boyd Tonkin, writing for the Financial Times, largely praised the novel and saying it "pulses along with a zest and cunning not commonly found among octogenarian Nobel laureates" as well as calling it "punchily translated by the ever-excellent Edith Grossman."[7]

Anthony Quinn of The Guardian felt the novel "never achieves a truly compulsive rhythm" and criticized Edith Grossman's translation for "tripping up" the reading experience.[8]

gollark: They radiate tons of heat and you can perfectly predict their orbital path given previous knowledge of it.
gollark: Space things are on the whole not very stealthy anyway.
gollark: But it would probably be hard to manage at such ridiculous velocity.
gollark: I assume they mean inertial guidance or something, where it works out its position based on acceleration/gyroscope data.
gollark: Cynical answer: you are not, mostly, paying for actual education, which is increasingly cheap via the internet, but inherently scarce social status from either going to a prestigious college or having a degree at all.

References
  1. "Cinco Esquinas [The Neighborhood] (Audiobook) by Mario Vargas Llosa". Audible. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  2. ""Cinco esquinas", la nueva novela de Vargas Llosa se publicará el 3 de marzo". EFE. 23 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  3. Cueto, Alonso (4 March 2016). "Intersecciones del tiempo". El País. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  4. "The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa ; translated by Edith Grossman". Kirkus Reviews. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  5. "Fiction Book Review: The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa, trans. from the Spanish by Edith Grossman". Publishers Weekly. 4 December 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  6. Tonkin, Boyd (27 April 2018). "The Neighbourhood by Mario Vargas Llosa — payback for poll defeat". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  7. Quinn, Anthony (27 April 2018). "The Neighbourhood by Mario Vargas Llosa review – scandal in a nation of gossips". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2019.


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