Discussion Of: "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service"

Let's honor Mario Vargas Llosa's recent passing by choosing a light-hearted novel of his for discussion in our second June meeting.

This delightful farce opens as the prim and proper Captain Pantoja learns he is to be sent to Peru's Amazon frontier on a secret mission for the army-to provide females for the amorous recruits. Side-splitting complications arise as world of Captain Pantoja's remarkable achievements start to spread.

Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Peru in Protected content . He is the author of some of the last half-century's most important novels, including The War of the End of the World, The Feast of the Goat, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and Conversation in the Cathedral. In Protected content was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The translation was done by Gregory Kolovakos and Ronald Christ, who have translated several important works by Latin American writers.

Feel free to read the novel in its original language but come prepared for a discussion in English.

[photo and text extracted from Amazon]