Mario Vargas Llosa · 608 pages
Rating: (5.1K votes)
“Aquí cambian las personas, teniente, nunca las cosas.”
“I know what a man feels close to the woman he loves, but he's affraid to do anything”
“—Con dogmáticos o con inteligentes, el Perú estará siempre jodido —dijo Carlitos—. Este país empezó mal y acabará mal. Como nosotros, Zavalita.”
“Ninguna otra novela me ha dado tanto trabajo; por eso, si tuviera que salvar del fuego una sola de las que he escrito, salvaría ésta.”
“allí. Un gran canchón rodeado de un muro ruin de adobes color caca —el color de Lima, piensa, el color del Perú—, flanqueado por chozas que, a lo lejos, se van mezclando y espesando hasta convertirse en un laberinto de esteras, cañas, tejas, calaminas.”
“¿Quería de veras un consejo, piensa, sabía que estabas enamorado de ella y quería saber si te atreverías a decírselo? Qué habría dicho si yo, piensa, qué habría yo si ella. Piensa: ay, Zavalita.”
“¿En qué momento se había jodido el Perú?”
“automóviles, edificios desiguales y descoloridos, esqueletos de avisos luminosos flotando en la neblina, el mediodía gris. ¿En qué momento se había jodido el Perú?”
“Se había acordado de algo que le dijo Trifulcio esa noche, la víspera de su partida a Lima, cuando caminaban a oscuras: estoy en Chincha y siento que no estoy, reconozco todo y no reconozco nada.”
“Ya se sentía bastante jodido aquí, niño, allá ese día además de jodido se había sentido viejísimo.”
“Hasta la lluvia andaba jodida en este país. Piensa:”
“Malachi?” “Yes?” “I love you, even though you’re dragging me through really stinky water and mud right now.”
“She wondered why she, who had such difficulty talking about herself with people of flesh and blood, could blithely reveal her most intimate secrets to a bunch of completely unknown freaks on the Internet.”
“But for a society build on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.”
“I just thought I was empty and now I'm being filled...and I just wanted to keep being filled.”
“It was a difficult time to be Irish, a difficult time to be twenty-one years of age and a difficult time to be a man who was attracted to other men. To be all three simultaneously required a level of subterfuge and guile that felt contrary to my nature.”
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