Peru’s New Literary Wave

By Carmen Ospina -- Críticas, 8/1/2005

In the past couple of years Peruvian writers Jorge Eduardo Benavides, Fernando Iwasaki, and Santiago Roncagliolo have gained the accolades of critics across the Spanish-speaking world. Based out of Spain, these three young authors write about life in their native country, exploring such varied themes as governmental corruption, gruesome dentistry practices in colonial Lima, and the painful silences that can break a family apart. Alfaguara has just published novels by Iwasaki and Roncagliolo, and a short story collection by Benavides (see This Month’s Titles). To celebrate the U.S. release of these books, Críticas spoke to 30-year-old Roncagliolo about his latest novel, Pudor (Prudishness), and whether this Peruvian boom can be viewed as a new literary wave.

In Pudor you explore how prudishness foments miscommunication within a family. What inspired you to write about this topic?

I like literature that breaks silences; writing that puts a finger on the sore spot in one way or another. And I believe that intimacy is one of those sore spots that families don’t want to touch. Moreover, I have always been shocked by our capacity to live surrounded by other people, yet to feel terribly lonely. I thought these were interesting topics to write about.

Would it be correct to group you, Jorge Eduardo Benavides, and Fernando Iwasaki as a new Peruvian literary movement or generation?

What unites me to Jorge Eduardo and Fernando is a beautiful friendship and great admiration. I don’t think that we belong to the same generation, nor that we have the same creative interests. Actually, they’ve always been sort of “older brothers” to me, and I’ve always been grateful for that.

You have lived in Peru, Mexico, and now in Spain. Tell us about your experience as an immigrant and writer there. Have you had to change the language or themes of your novels now that you are addressing a European public?

Not really. I have always written in a very neutral Spanish, maybe because I don’t like books with too many colloquialisms that I don’t understand. As for the themes I explore in my fiction, I think that the experience of traveling and immigrating has allowed me, primarily, to get to know different people, what unites them, and what sets them apart. I’m not very interested in the particular stories of Peruvians, Spaniards, or Africans, but in the stories of human beings in general.

Who are your influences?

They change with every book because each time I write I like to explore a different universe. Pudor is inspired partly on the work of writers John Cheever and Richard Ford, partly on the films of Woody Allen and Tod Solonz, and even on The Simpsons and Stephen King.

Do you have a promotion plan for the United States?

I will be attending the Miami Book Fair and several universities in the States this November, and one of my goals is to find out what this audience thinks of my work.