xxx/ellauri116.html on line 270: Don Rigoberto is, by far, the novel's most interesting character, not because he is especially complex but because Vargas Llosa relishes in his quirks and describes them in titillating detail, creating what Anthony Burgess calls "the pornography of hygiene."
xxx/ellauri116.html on line 272: Don Rigoberto is compulsive about his personal cleanliness and his bodily functions. He appreciates them as marvelous and necessary, to be worshipped both for their sake as well as for the sake and welfare of the whole body. He devotes a day a week to the care of a different member or organ: Monday, hands; Tuesday, feet; Wednesday, ears; Thursday, nose; Friday, hair...
xxx/ellauri116.html on line 274: While the novel takes place exclusively within the confines of the family home in Lima, it is clear that they enjoy a seemingly normal relationship with the outside world: business associates, friends, and school. Don Rigoberto, the head of the household, is the manager of an insurance company. A widower, he marries Lucrecia, a forty-year-old divorcee. Dona Lucrecia enjoys the fruits of her privileged lifestyle; during the day she directs the household staff, goes shopping, plays bridge, and attends to the care of Don Rigoberto's son, the angelic looking Alfonso, a prepubescent boy of indeterminate age.
xxx/ellauri116.html on line 278: Chapters 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, and 14 contain a color print of a famous painting accompanied by a narration, each from a separate voice. Vizi takuulla mä kynäilin jotain sarkastista tostakin. Rigoberto, Lucrecia, Alfonso, and perhaps even Justiniana, all become the protagonist/narrator of one of the paintings by Jordaenes, Boucher, Titian, Francis Bacon, Fernando de Szyszlo, and Fra Angelico. This rather heterogenous collection of prints share the fact that they could be viewed as depicting various aspects of sensuality, from the voyeuristic to the immaculate.
4