The Dream of the Celt

April 30, 2012
A Nobel Prize for Literature winner (in 2010) and one-time Peruvian presidential candidate, Vargas Llosa chronicles the life of Roger Casement, an Irish patriot and human rights activist, or “specialist in atrocities,” who was executed by the British in 1916 after the Easter Rising, which heralded the beginning of Irish independence. This is a meticulously researched book about a deeply complex man; Vargas Llosa’s admirable powers as a writer of fiction are apparent when he slows the pace of the narrative to allow access to Casement’s thoughts as he languishes in prison, waiting to hear whether his stay of execution has been granted. Vargas Llosa (The Bad Girl) is at his best writing as a novelist rather than biographer, but the unnecessarily complex narrative structure in which Casement’s life story unfolds at a galloping pace achieves neither the best of biography nor the best of fiction. Readers will wish that the book was either one or the other. Agent: The Carmen Balcells Agency.

Starred review from June 15, 2012
The Celt in question is Sir Roger Casement, who advocated on behalf of oppressed natives of the Congo and of Amazonia, but when he turns his attention to the Irish Troubles in 1916, the British feel he's gone too far, so he's caught, tried and executed. Originally published in 2010 and now lyrically translated, the novel focuses on the three major stages in Casement's life. As a young man he travels to the Congo, and while at first he's enamored with the European "mission," he soon has a Conrad-ian epiphany about the exploitation of rubber workers, who are brutalized beyond belief. (Conrad, in fact, briefly appears in the novel.) Casement's report about this exploitation garners him much acclaim in England. Next he turns his compassionate vision toward Amazonia, that section of Peru in which the indigenous peoples are once again being savagely misused by a multinational corporation--in this case the Peruvian Amazon Company, whose board, Casement discovers, comprises a number of prominent Englishmen, but in his role of British consul he courageously speaks out against the atrocities he finds there and once again publishes a devastating report; this time his findings ironically lead to his being knighted by the British. In the final phase of his life--he died at the tragically young age of 51--he supports independence for his native Ireland, naively working with the Germans during World War I against an England he now hates. At the Easter Rising he's caught and four months later is executed at Pentonville Prison in London. Although politically and morally committed to his causes, Casement feels poor in love, for his "relationships" consist solely of fleeting and furtive homosexual liaisons. Vargas Llosa speculates that the so-called Black Diaries Casement left are authentic but that he uses them to record sexual fantasies as much as sexual reality. A dazzling novel of great intensity and power.

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January 1, 2012

A surprise subject from Nobel prize winner Vargas Llosa: Irish nationalist Robert Casement, who in 1916 was hanged by the British government for treason. Casement had fought to improve the lives of oppressed people worldwide, but when he began highlighting injustices closer to home, his fate was sealed. Obviously for all readers.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2012
The Peruvian Nobel laureate is an aggressive yet elegant writer, unafraid of confronting big social and political issues and complex historical figures and corralling these potent forces into wide-screen novels that never fail to leave readers slammed against the wall in awe and admiration. In his new novel, he has taken from the pages of history a quiet, sober, reflective Irishman in the British diplomatic service. But through his great humanitarian work, Roger Casement spoke loudly about colonial abuse of native peoples in the Congo and Peru, for which he was knighted by the British king in 1911. Startlingly, five years later, he was executed for treason by the same king's government. This seeming disparity, the transition from hero to criminal, is the great drama of Casement's life, rendered by Vargas Llosa with a wondrous mixture of factual accuracy and responsible imagining. Casement's evolution from believing in the colonial system to abhorring it, and then carrying over his newfound and profound hatred of oppression to an intense and ultimately fatal bid to wrest Ireland's home rule from Britain, is a trajectory the author follows with a dynamic richness of detail that leaves the novel a sublime example of historical fiction of the highest order and of literature in its maximum effectiveness. High-Demand Back Story: Prepub buzz announces this as one of the South American master's finest efforts, and literary fiction readers will want to read and discuss.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 1, 2014

The Nobel Prize laureate turns to the early 20th-century Irish rebel Roger Casement's insurrection and execution in a saga typical of the author's renowned storytelling style.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2012

Continuing his recent trend of writing historical novels, Vargas Llosa turns to Roger Casement, an Irish patriot knighted for exposing the greed and abuses of the rubber industry in the Belgian Congo and the Amazon. Casement was later tried and hanged for treason for his involvement in an insurrection in Ireland. True to Vargas Llosa's style, the narrative alternates between 1916, where Casement is in jail awaiting execution, and the historical background, beginning in 1903. The themes of greed and cover-up go all the way back to his first novel, The Time of the Hero; his fascination with the jungle was first evident in The Green House. Vargas Llosa also speculates about the authenticity of Casement's so-called black diaries, whose accounts of pederasty helped seal Casement's fate. VERDICT Though Vargas Llosa is on familiar ground in the two jungle settings, the section on the Irish rebellion sometimes feels like a journalistic tract. Still, any new novel by this popular, Nobel Prize--winning author will be in demand, and his gift for plot, character development, and dialog continue in this quickly paced read. [See Prepub Alert, 12/5/11.]--Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.