Mere Mortals Book Reviews

Mere Mortals Book Reviews


Cubs & Other Stories (Mario Vargas Llosa) - Book Review

August 10, 2021

The adolescent Peruvian coming of age story seems a tad more intense than most others.

'Cubs & Other Stories' by Mario Vargas Llosa is a group of 7 fictional (but lifelike) short stories mostly involving young men/boys. The titular story is of a boy who is castrated by a dog and then turns into a wild rebellious teen. All take place in Peru with most of them occurring in the capital of Lima. These were written at the start of Llosa's career and were mostly published independently in newspapers before being compiled.

I summarised the book as follows. "My thoughts on books that are 'collections' has not altered in the slightest. Due to the quantity of slang this was a difficult read in Spanish and I'm not sure the English version would have been any more interesting. It wasn't bad but there was nothing within that stood out (maybe due to the young age of the author)."

I hope you have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world. Kyrin out!
If you would like to support the channel, you can grab yourself a copy of the book here! https://amzn.to/2WxQHP0
Timeline:
(0:00) - Intro
(0:33) - Synopsis
(2:48) - Young Men: Risk takers due to differing values
(5:49) - Personal Observations/Takeaways
(7:26) - Summary

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