Critical Review of M. Keith Booker’s Article about Mario Vargas Llosa’s “The Green House”

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Critical Review of M. Keith Booker’s Article about Mario Vargas Llosa’s “The Green
House”
The following paper will present a critical review of M. Keith Booker’s article “Vargas
Llosa Among the Postmodernists: Redefining the Modernist Novel in The Green House”. The
article of Mr. Booker can be considered highly effective and helpful for the understanding of the
Llosa’s writing technique in his novel “The Green House” as it reveals some of the basic
elements of modernism in Llosa’s work making the novel’s evaluation easier and its components
clearer. Booker’s article without any doubt presents a comprehensive and important criticism
highlighting some of the most significant elements of the novel “The Green House” correlating
its artistic importance to the modernist principles and notifying of its importance for the
understanding of modernism as a movement in regard to post-modernism, especially in AngloAmerican literature considering its vital role for the evolution of Latin-American literature in
particular.
Booker pays close attention to problem of the definition of modernism and postmodernism. It is revealed that critical evaluation of both movements is complex due to the fact of
their interaction between each other and its contradicting principles. Booker claims that Llosa’s
work can shed light on the issue of the roots and basic principles of the both movements because
of its unique qualities and original features. It is stated in the article that “The Green House” is a
modernist novel (Booker, 4). The author uses the novel to discuss and define some of the
principles of modernism. Llosa’s work incorporates techniques similar to those of James Joyce
and Virginia Woolf. The author also points out that being a huge admirer of Flaubert Llosa uses
some of the methods present in “Madame Bovary”, for example, non-linear dialogue narrative.
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The author points out that Llosa’s shifts through time and space in dialogues make it clear that
the roots of “the Green House” go back to modernism.
According to Booker, Llosa’s work stands between popular reading and exclusive
modernist narratives. Booker claims that from one perspective modernist novels are exclusive in
their representation of individual and subjective views on the world. On the other hand and
contrasting modernism to post-modernism popular reading reflects on the external experiences
applicable to large public in order to make a difference and affect the world (Booker, 9). Booker
accurately claims that Llosa wrote his novel during the time when left-wing movements in Latin
America were arising. Booker says, evaluating the statement of various critics, that Llosa used
technical devices and modernist principles to make his novel work for the benefit of people and
affect the world by making order from the reality’s chaos.
It is claimed in the article that “The Green House” is also very to William Faulkner’s
“Absalom, Absalom!” Among the “classic” modernists, as Booker puts it, Faulkner’s influence
can be seen very clearly in “The Green House”. Booker goes even further saying that “The
Green House” can even be considered “Absalom, Absalom!” removed to Peruvian jungle.
Booker claims that the technique of interlacing dialogues which contains shifts in time and space
is the feature that unites Llosa’s novel with its modernist predecessors, including Faulkner’s
works (Booker, 7). About the objectives of what this particular feature is aimed to describe in
“The Green House” the article’s author suggests that it may be for the benefit of clearer
expression of the collective intentions and needs of society or because of the fact that people
cannot control time and are be bound by the space. The complexity of the narrative in the novel
is correlated to its content and the principles of modernism in general.
Booker’s comments, critical evaluation, and discussion of Llosa’s novel uncovers deeply
incorporated messages which make it possible to understand why Llosa’s wrote the work in the
first place and how it came to be an important work of fiction exemplary of modernism and
representing the importance of Latin-American literature. The article bring to attention
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uniqueness of the novel in terms of its dedication to modernism through depiction of exclusively
Latin-American themes and subjects.
Booker shows what devices allow to consider Llosa’s work modernist. These include the
use of multiple narrators who are themselves characters, free indirect discourse, stream of
consciousness and other formal techniques. Booker comes to the opinion that modernism is
united by its dedication to form and formal techniques as well as subjective individual style
(Booker, 21). This particularly important feature of modernism is told to be incorporated in the
work of classic modernists and Llosa’s novel in order to make literature more effe