THE ICE PICK

Letters to a Young Novelist, by Mario Vargas Llosa. Translated by Natasha Wimmer. New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002. 136 p. $17.00. Includes index. ISBN: 0-374-11916-3.

"All creators of fiction," says Vargas Llosa, "are embroiled in the same process . . . a reasonable human longing to live a life of adventure, an undying love--that makes them wish passionately for a world different from the one they live in, a world that they are then compelled to construct of words and upon which they stamp, usually in code, their questioning of real life and the their affirmation of that other reality which their selfishness or generosity spurs them to set up in place of the one they’ve been allotted." And, perhaps, never is this more true than among those of us who write speculative fiction.

Not having read any of Vargas Llosa’s works, I was unprepared for this delightful little book. Written for the "young novelist" of all ages, Vargas Llosa leads and teaches with a gentle humorous touch, exploring the "inner workings of fiction" and explaining not only his own philosophy of the creative urge, but also how to improve our writing.

Using the works of writers from many different literary traditions around the world, Vargas Llosa shows how wannabe writers can begin to write the kinds of stories "that would dazzle . . . readers," while warning "that those who see success as their main goal will probably never realize their dreams."

He is blunt in his dislike of "disagreeably academic language" and his assessment of those famous writers whose work he considers boring or who have irritating or "stuttering" styles, while he praises those with "the power of persuasion" who "awaken in us a lively curiosity."

Throughout his clearly written and straightforward discussions of how to create and use style, different narrators and their space, fictional time, "levels of reality," and possible shifts within all of them, I was impressed by the number of classic authors he cites who wrote works which are actually what we would call speculative fiction.

Beyond the usual inclusion of Henry James, Kafka, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery are Julio Cortazar’s "The Idol of the Cyclades" and Juan Carlos Onetti’s use of the nesting Chinese boxes (one story within the other) in a "voyage between reality and fantasy," plus Ambrose Bierce’s "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Jorge Luis Borges’ "The Secret Miracle," Gunter Grass’s "The Tin Drum," Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World, which unfolds on fantastic and realistic levels that "almost make us live inside the myths and legends of his story," and many others with which we should be familiar, but which I’m sure most of us probably have not read.

It made me eager to read Juan Rulfo, Roger Caillois, and Hermann Hesse, as well as works by Vargas Llosa himself.

Written in an easy, eloquent, and conversational style, this book is one that can help get you started writing stories and improve those you are working on, aid you in making a switch from short stories to novels, and expand your horizons both as a reader and a writer.

Like the layers of reality within fiction, which Vargas Llosa so carefully explains, this slender book possesses deeper and deeper layers of truth, from which I think you will learn something new every time you read it.

And if you fear translations for the awkwardness usually found in them, this one reads seamlessly. Natasha Wimmer has done an excellent job.

I loved the book and I highly recommend it to you.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Feb. 2004. Reprinted in Write Connections, Mar. 2004.}