A Fish in the Water: A Memoir - Tapa blanda

"[Mario Vargas Llosa] has published a fascinating and often bitter memoir . . . enlightening." --The New York Times

"[A Fish in the Water] offers a convincing self-portrait of a political innocent sinking under a tide of democratic absurdities. . . . An often funny and cautionary tale." --Time

"An absorbing picture not only of the growth of a rapaciously inquisitive intellectual, but a fascinating portrait of Peru over the past thirty years, with many of the same qualities--intelligence, an eye for detail, bursts of humour and anger--that are so memorable in [Vargas Llosa's] novels . . . one cannot help but admire [his] courage." --The Independent (London)

"This volume of memoirs will not disappoint fans of his novels (among whom I count myself). . . . Vargas Llosa emerges here as the brilliant writer he has always been, with insights into politics as deep as those he has previously shown about other forms of human endeavor." --Elliott Abrams, The American Spectator

"A dazzling performance, one of [Vargas Llosa's] very best books, full of curious, even surreal, events . . . I urge all who read this review to buy it immediately. They may think I have understated its merits." --Hugh Thomas, National Review

"Intriguing . . . Reads like the diary of an astute social critic who, for reasons he does not fully comprehend, has also become the protagonist of the events he observes." --Arturo J. Cruz, Jr., Commentary

"An artful political and literary memoir . . . Vargas Llosa's narrative skill and novelist's eye animate the unfamiliar politics, people, and culture of Peru. Essential political as well as literary reading." --Kirkus Reviews

Mario Vargas Llosa's A Fish in the Water is a twofold book: a memoir of one of Latin America's most celebrated witers, beginning with his birth in 1936 in Arequipa, Peru; and the story of his organization of the reform movement which culminated in his bid for the Peruvian presidency in 1990.