La novela cuenta la historia paralela de dos personajes: el ordenado y entrañable Felícito Yanaqué, un pequeño empresario de Piura, que es extorsionado; y de Ismael Carrera, un exitoso hombre de negocios, dueño de una aseguradora en Lima, quien urde una sorpresiva venganza contra sus dos hijos holgazanes que quisieron verlo muerto. Viejos conocidos del mundo vargallosiano aparecen en estas páginas: el sargento Lituma y los inconquistables, don Rigoberto, doña Lucrecia y Fonchito, todos moviéndose ahora en un Perú muy próspero.
Ambos personajes son, a su modo, discretos rebeldes que intentan hacerse cargo de sus propios destinos, pues tanto Ismael como Felícito le echan un pulso al curso de los acontecimientos. Mientras Ismael desafía todas las convenciones de su clase, Felícito se aferra a unas pocas máximas para sentar cara al chantaje. No son justicieros, pero están por encima de las mezquindades de su entorno para vivir según sus ideales y deseos.

Two seemingly separate stories of two moral men besieged by problems that try to overwhelm them. A small suggestion early on lets you suspect that the two stories will comes together by the end. The main characters are very compelling individuals and I admired them a great deal as they dealt with the crises that they were thrust into. One of my favorite authors. ( )

Intriguing pair of stories about standing up for what is right even when it is against common practice and good sense. My biggest complaint is that Llosa would interpolate scenes from different times without warning, sometimes in the middle of a conversation. As I got used to this, I could see that they were (perhaps) recollections of events & conversations that occurred earlier that the 'present' had evoked but it was disconcerting and confusing. ( )

I love how Vargas Llosa reprises the characters of Don Rigoberto, his wife Lucrecia, and their son Fonchito in this book, for they are some of my favorites in literature. Here Rigoberto is on the verge of retiring when he has to assist his 80-year boss (Ismael) get married to his middle-aged maid, in order that the aging businessman write his dissolute sons out of his will. The sons are naturally displeased, and begin threatening Rigoberto, who must stand up bravely to them. Meanwhile, Fonchito is causing his parents grief, saying a mysterious man is turning up to talk to him. They can’t figure out if there is a pedophile stalking their son, he has a mental condition, or whether he’s just bamboozling them again behind his innocent mien.

And here all poor Rigoberto wants to do is to travel to Europe, or go to his study, his ‘citadel of culture’, and read, listen to music, and study art prints. One artist he enjoys is Tamara de Lempicka, singling out Rhythm, La Belle Rafaela, Myrto, The Model, and The Slave from among her paintings; it’s nice to look these references up as you read, and to sample one of the musicians he likes, Cecilia Barraza.

In a parallel story, Felicito Yanaque, owner of the Narihuala Transport Company, is threatened by a mysterious letter writer to pay some “insurance”, or else. Felicito also has to stand up to harassment, but his case is even more dangerous, since he alone is responsible for his business, his blackmailer’s are unknown, and they threaten the lives of his loved ones. And by ‘loved ones’, they include his mistress, for Felicito is trapped in a loveless marriage, which was arranged when he got his wife pregnant after a few tumbles in the hay, and has been keeping a younger woman in a love nest for many years. I liked how Vargas Llosa also reprised the characters of policemen Lituma and Silva to look into who is blackmailing Felicito, and it’s not clear the police aren’t also mixed up in it.

Aside from the obvious similarities in the middle aged men standing up to be ‘discreet heroes’, the stories are linked in that Felicito’s wife is the sister of Ismael’s maid/new wife. There are other common themes: the older generation’s hard work and sacrifice, the austerity with which they dispensed their love, and the danger of the younger generation becoming spoiled and blowing it all. It may seem like Vargas Llosa gets close to ‘grumpy old man’ territory here, and indeed he is a conservative who believes in hard work and self-made men, but I found he showed great perspective on life from the age of 79 in this book. The endings to the plot lines were unfortunately just “ok”, but overall I enjoyed it, and found it well worth reading.

Just this quote:
“’It’s just that there’s something I don’t understand,’ Fonchito ventured uncomfortably. ‘About you, Papa. You always liked art, painting, music, books. It’s the only thing you seem passionate about. So, then, why did you become a lawyer? Why did you spend your whole life working in an insurance company? You should have been a painter, a musician, well, I don’t know. Why didn’t you follow your calling?’
Don Rigoberto nodded and reflected a moment before answering.
‘Because I was a coward, son,’ he finally murmured. ‘Because I lacked faith in myself. I never believed I had the talent to be a real artist. But maybe that was an excuse for not trying. I decided not to be a creator but only a consumer of art, a dilettante of culture. Because I was a coward is the sad truth. So now you know. Don’t follow my example. Whatever your calling is, follow it as far as you can and don’t do what I did, don’t betray it.’” ( )

The tone of Mario Vargas Llosa's books, or that of his translator seem tongue in cheek and I love where the stories go. Here he has two situations, both having legal ramifications, which do not seem to relate, and on page 260 something out of 326 they come together. In the meantime we have Felicito Yanque who is being coerced into paying a monthly bribe to an unknown -- who turns out to be his mistress and his son and we have Ismael Carrera, a successful business man who tries to eliminate his sons from inheriting by marrying his servant. Don Rigoberto, Carrera's employee, is involved and cheated out of his retirement for a while because of Carrera's sons. The tale is convoluted and fun. ( )