Hello there, Literary Criticismophiles, accursed and wretched creatures who ravage, skin and torture literature!!
Now, tell me what comes into your mind when you hear the words South America or Latin America?
Does this create mental images of that sell-out named Coelho and his "spiritual" self-help third world "literature", do you imagine the poetry of Neruda or Gabo's Macondo?
Or, would you stand up, raise your hands and shout at me the cursed words....."Magic Realism!!", and you start flaunting that you have read Allende or Esquivel?
uuuurgghhhhhhhhhh!!! Duh?!

Well, all these wretched things are corrupting and overshadowing the real glory and rich heritage of Modern and Post-Modern Latin-American Literature...
Are we forgetting these names? Jorge Luis Borges? Julio Cortazar? And of course......METAFICTION!! Me-Ta-Fic-Tion, probably the most important contribution from their side of the earth to our literature....
The Metafiction, that has influenced works as diverse as Vonnegut's, Calvino's, Rushdie's, Sophie's World to movies like "The Neverending Story" and TV Shows like "Kool Ka Lang"...THE Metafiction...
Without Metafiction, no Pomo Lit..Period!

Now, with all these ranting I've almost forgot to tell you what this Metafiction stuff is all about...
Alright, now to put it in simple terms, Metafiction is the kind of fiction that self-consciously reveals itself as fiction, with no desire to disguise itself as reality and admits that "Hey, I am not real I am just a book, a novel...A lie!"
Let me site some examples, so that you will get a clearer picture of all this jargon I am saying....

Metafiction, is usually about....
A writer, writing stories or a story about creating stories.
Like the book I'm going to make a review on, and works by Cortazar like the short story "Blow-Up"

The writer is a part of the fictional work or story.
Just like, Borges' "The Aleph" and Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughter House 5",and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

A story in which the fictional characters are part of another fictional story...
Italo Calvino's "If On A Winter's Night A Traveller"

A Fictional Essay based on improbable sources, or anything fictitious pretending to be a realistic account or essay...
Just Like, Borges' "The Analytical Language Of John Wilkins", and just like what I'm doing with this reviews... to quote Holden Caulfield indirectly..."I'm The World's Biggest Liar!"

Another tenet of this type of PoMo Fiction is Formal Discontinuity.. So if you are asking me why I write like this, and why I don't make much sense...Well, dude I am a clear example of discontinuity and what I'm doing is clearly a reflection of a sick mind doing unrevised, uncorrected, and raw automatic writing.(Why, am I such a genius at doing this? I'm a damn, terrific liar)....And of course, formal-discontinuity doesn't mean that I lack coherence...My works may not be linear, but I'm the one doing this review so no more questions please...

Enough of all this Metafiction stuff, I'm here to do a review, and like what I've been saying since I started this review thing... I'm only here to tell you if a work is good or if it sucks....But, guys don't take my word for anything I say, Tastes are subjective and I'm also a terrific liar. You might end up being robbed.

Well, to get things going let me take you to the next stage of my sermon, which is a review on....Dyarraaan!!

In Praise Of The Stepmother By Mario Vargas Llosa

The plot of the story is very simple but effective...
There's this guy named Don Rigoberto who has a second wife, the sultry and beautiful Lucrecia....The Don also has a young kid named Alfonso, probably a cute and angelic little boy based on the descriptions in the novel but as scheming and wicked as The Omen's Damien in heat...
Rigoberto is obssessed with these things: Personal Hygiene, Sex with Lucrecia and Erotic Paintings..
To arouse each other, the couple tell each other (here, is the metafiction part)erotic fairy tales, very sexy myths before and while having sex..
Another, cool feature of the novel...in between chapters there are pictures and repros of the paintings where they get their inspiration from...So you also get to appreciate art and paintings, in a sleazy way...hehehe.
Featured in the novel are works by, Jordeans, Boucher, Titian, Bacon and Szyslo etc..
And I really admire the characters' imaginations for transforming some of the artworks into pieces of erotic fancy..
Hmm, let's say... Francis Bacon's "Head1", a surreal-cubist painting showing a disembodied mass with ears and fangs in a white plain that looks like a hospital bed, or Ferdinand de Szyszlo's "Road to Mendieta 10", which is a very, very abstract painting...now, imagine what kind of people can actually derive sexy and sensual images from those..Well, that's Llosa's talent..
Now, going back to Alfonso, this kid loves to spy on his step mother while she is taking a bath and as the story unfolds, you will discover how the child's fancies evolve into a storm of perversity and passion..

So in short, theres a kiddie having sex with a mature lady twist, which can put Murakami's Kafka Tamura's affair with the Hot Momma to shame.

Talking about sex scenes...Mario Vargas Llosa is a master when it comes to story telling, and when it comes to arousing the senses...couples can learn a thing or two from the novel's pages.

Imagine the joys of sheer oral pleasure...Where, the characters explore the walls of the mouth with the tongue, and imagine tongues gliding through skin...and, teeth nibbling at the most sensual regions of the body...
Imagine the use of the eyes to see the hidden beauties of one's partner...
And, imagine using the ear to listen to the stories of sex and passion, as well as using the ears to listen to the sounds of moans, the rumble of the intestines beneath the belly, the sounds of breasts and genitalia...Nuff said..

The novel also features, really vivid details of Rigoberto's ablutions and rituals...from descriptions of cleaning the ears, to his bowel movements, a not so appetizing topic to tackle but, with the talent of Llosa in weaving stories everything seems so beautiful...

Regarding Metafiction, Llosa is an expert at this...I cannot help but compare the theme to one of his earlier novels "The Storyteller", in which the novel is based on a main character, imagining and weaving a story about a friend (whom he haven't seen for ages) after seeing a picture of a tribe gathered around the Storyteller..He imagines that the storyteller in the picture is his long lost friend, and that is where the story takes-off.
Like the character in "The Storyteller", the characters in "In Praise Of The Stepmother", create stories out of the paintings...
And that is where the story revolves...On The creation of myths and stories.

Man, I'm running out of profound thoughts so I guess it's time for me to stop....
Go out and grab a copy, find out for yourself if it is cool or not.

To tell you the truth, I enjoyed the book..So, if you can find a copy buy it...

I got mine at a local Booksale outlet for around 70 bucks, but if this novel is locally available it might fetch the same price as other Llosa novels...Which is around 400-700 php...But, every cent is worth it..

Believe me, I'm an honest liar.

Suggested Reading...

The Storyteller, Mario Vargas Llosa..I got my copy for 15 bucks at Booksale.

Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges

Borges, A Reader (edited by Emir Rodriguez Monegal and Alastair Reid)...got it for almost 300 php, but I think this is the best Borges anthology ever.

End Of The Game and Other Stories, Julio Cortazar

The Floating Opera, John Barth....My Waterloo in college, this is probably the novel that gave me the worst grade for a term paper..

If On A winter's Night A Traveller, Italo Calvino...Got mine for around 60 bucks at Booksale, but it is also available at NBS at around 400php.

All things written by rock critic Lester Bangs....