The separation of Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize for Literature Mario Vargas Llosa from Filipino celebrity Isabel Preysler has not only become world newsbut now it begins to feel like a novel that is delivered in chapters.
After knowing the version of Isabel Preysler released by the Spanish magazine Hello!, that the break was due to the “unfounded jealousy” of Mario Vargas Llosa, from the writer’s environment they made it clear that the reasons would have been others. In reality their personalities were incompatible. since he “is a man of culture” and she “of show business”.
This was published by the Spanish newspaper Villagewhich in an excellent article also relates it The windsan autobiographical story by Vargas Llosa, which he published in the book Letras libres, in 2021. Let’s read some outstanding paragraphs.
What the anticipatory story says
“Every night, it seems incredible to me, since I committed the folly of leaving my wife, I think of her and remorse assails me. I think there’s only one thing I’ve done wrong in life: abandoning Carmencita for a woman who was not worthy (…). Every night I think of her and ask her forgiveness,” the 86-year-old writer says in that story.
There he tells the story of a man who is reaching the twilight of his life, a disillusioned man who regrets having left his wife for another.
“I have already forgotten the name of that woman for whom I abandoned Carmencita. I never wanted it. It was a violent and fleeting infatuation, one of those madnesses that destroy a life. For doing what I did, my life was destroyed and I was never happy again (…). It was a crush on the pichula, not the heart. Of that pichula that no longer serves me, except to pee”, continues the story.
Although the publication of The winds went unnoticed by the general public -says El País-, it was not for the intimate environment of the author of works such as The Feast of the Goat Y Aunt Julia and the writerWhat did you see in this story? signs of apparent fatigue that Vargas Llosa already felt then after seven years of living together with Isabel Preysler, 71 years old.
The fictional story is littered with clues that lead to reality. There are the repeated veiled references to his ex-wife: Carmen is the first name of Patricia Llosa, the ex-wife of the Nobel and mother of their three children.
Criticism of the entertainment world
In the story you can also read between the lines the criticisms of a certain frivolous and showbiz worldliness. “It’s impossible to enjoy a concert, or an opera, or even a light comedy, surrounded by people who do nothing but type or stroke their tablets in front of their eyes.”
In The winds the discomfort of the writer is palpable in the face of media overexposure and what he himself has defined, following in the footsteps of the French philosopher Guy Debord, “the civilization of entertainment”.
“Sometimes I think that, without realizing it, what is happening around me is contaminating me too and I can no longer really distinguish between what culture is and what occupies its place in the crazy world we now live in”, he continues in the story.
And he shows his tiredness and boredom with a social agenda that is as intense as it is monotonous: «The dinner struck me a lot, it’s true, not for the food, nothing special, but for the holograms. Throughout the night we were surrounded by these ghostly characters, doubling as waiters or waitresses, waiting the table, passing trays with snacks and drinks.
In fiction, the protagonist manages to escape from that dystopian world and takes refuge in his old house, on Calle de la Flora in Madrid, which is the home where Vargas Llosa lived with his cousin and ex-wifeCarmen Patricia Llosa.
What they say in the writer’s environment
“When we read The windswe have seen the clear autobiographical references and also references to his relationship with Isabelalthough he obviously doesn’t use his name in any way,” explained a person from Vargas Llosa’s closest entourage in a conversation with Village.
“This story was written in December 2020, two years ago. So the crisis with Isabel comes from afar. It wasn’t something sudden or unexpected, as has been said. Relationship deterioration, doubts, regret, dissatisfaction…all of this had been brewing for a long time.. The tabloids have always portrayed them as an idyllic couple, but they went from something idyllic a long time ago to something less happy and more complicated,” the same source continued.
Again as posted by VillageIn June of this year, Mario Vargas Llosa and the widow of the minister Miguel Boyer experienced their first major crisis. At the beginning of the Spanish summer, he left the house he has in the Puerta de Hierro urbanization and returned to his apartment in the center of the capital. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the palace of the so-called “queen of hearts” in Miraflores Avenue.
Therefore They denied the breakup rumors, but the differences were there. “There were no bouts of jealousy, as has been said. This is false. This was the culmination of a deterioration,” the sources insist.
The Spanish newspaper tried to contact Isabel Preysler, but the answer was that the lady was out of the country.
In the circle of the writer describe the couple as “two people from very different worlds”. And they talk about two reasons that hastened the breakup. The first, the discrepancies in their interests and lifestyles, the lack of common projects.
“They were incompatible. He is interested in culture and she is interested in entertainment. There is an abyss between the two.” The second is more of an impression. Falcó,” they say.
Friends of both agree that both have tried to adjust to each other’s worlds. But culture and entertainment are antagonistic universes.
“At the beginning, Mario was also amused from an anthropological point of view, even if he never felt comfortable in that area,” they acknowledge. The Nobel laureate later claimed that he submitted to the poses, exclusives and photocalls “for love”.
“If I had the choice, I wouldn’t want to appear in the Hello!. Now I appear in the magazine for personal reasons. But if you have the recipe for not appearing, tell me “, she asked a journalist at a press conference to present her novel five cornersin 2016. In that same act, he definedHello! as the serialized novel of the 21st century.
“It is a cultural phenomenon of our time. There are millions of people who want something that makes them dream and that first offered the novel and poetry. now offers it Hello! with enormous talent,” he said. His words surprised the cultural press that covered the event, of which they were still very aware The civilization of the show. In that 2012 essay, the thinker defined gossip journalism as a “frivolous” industry, “without aesthetic values”, dominated by the “carnival of liars”.
During these years, that same press insisted on portraying the Preysler-Llosa couple as a happy couple. Or it was the spouses themselves who insisted on showing themselves like this before the flashes. But the signs of wear and tear had long since surfaced.
Didn’t accompany him to the last literary congress on his work, held a few months ago in the city of Florence, nor to the recent premiere of a montage of tales of plague in Catania, Sicily. “Isabel preferred to go to the Maldives,” they conclude from the writer’s environment.
Hello! says Preysler is sad and convinced there is no turning back. The Nobel circle says he is very well physically, mentally and emotionally. “He’s in a good mood and working on a new novel,” he says. Village. Vargas Llosa has returned to writing in his apartment in Madrid de los Austrias
At the end of The winds, the protagonist manages to reach his old home, the royal house of Vargas Llosa, “where Flora street meets Hileras street and touches the tiny Plaza de San Martín, which will later become Plaza de las Descalzas” . “I didn’t have the key that opens the big gate where I live (…). However, I was lucky. After only 10 or 15 minutes of waiting, a man with a cane appeared, whom I half recognized. He stopped by the door, took a key and opened it.”
As if Mario Vargas Llosa recognized Mario Vargas Llosa.
Source: The Country
WD extension
Source: Clarin
