One can start reading Mario Vargas Llosa from any of his work so I started to pick In Praise of Stepmother. At first glance all reader must had felt that it was like some other erotic story, but the book is beyond that...

Here we began with the story of a beautiful family with Don Rigoberto as the patriarch. He married the love of his life, Dona Lucrecia, after his previous marriage failed. He has a beautiful son, Alfonso.

Soon after, moral depravity was unavoidable when Lucrecia began the affair with Alfonso after she followed his mood for being taken care of. Lust and incestuous relationship lurks to attack Rigoberto's family.

Lucrecia initially thought that it would be fine to have Alfonso as the way he did it with her. She even thought that Alfonso was no other than her little cupid.

"And that's all there is between us; nothing more. He's not my lover. How could he be, at his age? What was he, then? Her little cupid, she told herself. Her sprintia. The child whom Renaissance painters added to boudoir scenes so that, by contrast to their aura of purity, the love bout depicted would be more ardent. Thanks to you, Rigoberto and I love and delight each other all the more, she thought, kissing him ever so lightly on the neck."

Sadly, Alfonso was more than a child in a Renaissance painting. He was a living creature with his own manipulative mind, messing up Lucrecia's mind which was already deluded in delusion after living in a fantastical sexual life with Rigoberto.

No, Alfonso was not one time thing which his presence was for bonding Lucrecia and Rigoberto's love. He was a wicked child, with a smile as beautiful as Lucifer's, succeed in destroying their marriage.

And his motive? No one could tell. When he was being confronted by their servant, Justiniana, Alfonso only told he did it for Justiniana, ringing another alarm that the new danger was already happening.

You would hate this book at first, with its erotic sense and phrase, also because this book mainly talked about Rigoberto's bathroom ritual. But you would like it for how smart Llosa talked about the true danger of false innocent in child's world. He also used his chance to criticize the wicked life of upper class society of Lima, Peru, just like Rigoberto and Lucrecia.

What I like most is how Llosa used several paintings as his references for describing the fantastical lusting life of Lucrecia and Rigoberto. He truly is a marvellous writer.

"Take a good look at me, my love. Recognize me, and recognize yourself." (Llosa's interpretation of Head I by Francis Bacon. He consider the painting as Profile of a Human Being).
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Didn't quite like the book. Yes, the writing is rich and evocative. That's about. I didn't find anything profound. May be it is just me

I read the kindle edition of the book, so I didn't have the benefit of studying the much-talked paintings.

The book had a nice quirky end. That's only aspect I liked ( )

Although of my disgust from erotic novels but I read this one after reading the controversy in reviews and the fact that the author had won "Cervantes Prize" for it.

I insisted to finish the book and It was amazing (Regardless of the disgusting chapter of cleaning rituals). The connection between these famous portraits and the dreams of characters was great, and the kid character is fantastic considering the last horrible laugh. ( )

This novel is light, almost too light. I would not recommend it at all if you're used to eroticism in books serving a high purpose. It seemed like a peculiar, less direct, cheap erotic novel. If there's anything good about this book, it's the way Llosa describes things (not necessarily what he chooses to describe.) If you want good literature with philosophized eroticism, read something by Kundera and skip this one.

P.S. I've been meaning to read Llosa's work for a long time, especially 'The Feast of the Goat'. However, that novel is a bit long (and I'm 5 books behind in the challenge!) and so I decided to read something shorter just to check out his general writing style. I'm still reading 'The Feast of the Goat' because I believe (I HOPE!) it wouldn't be as puerile as this one. ( )

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