Year 2022: the best of Peruvian literature in fiction, nonfiction and poetry, by José Carlos Yrigoyen

The most important book in this field is “Victoria Variations” by Carlos López Degregori, a singular artifact that masterfully links the echo of sinister arcanes, solid references to classical knowledge and disturbing nuances of a shadowy autobiography in which the imaginary and the experiential conspire to face the tribulations of biological deterioration and the possibility of turning the proximity of the finitude in jubilee space. Also noteworthy is “Todas las Nancys”, a new installment by María Belén Milla, who poem by poem builds a world of tender virulence and clean expression alien to the rhetoric of the interchangeable. “The accident and other poems” by Renzo Porcile and “Bodhisattva in the center of Lima” by Michael Prado stand as the most interesting poetic revelations of the year that is passing: the former achieves the dreamed coherence between rationality and emotion, while the The second skillfully welcomes the legacy of urban lyricism that José Cerna consecrated in our midst.

Roger Santiváñez returned with “Santa Rosa de Lima”, a conceptual collection of poems where he modeled the image of a deity shared between spiritual veneration, erotic effusion and lumpen dalliance. Another lucid approach to the popular is the colorful “Sisma”, a documentary poem by Paul Guillén. Jorge Eslava with “Gimnasium” and Abelardo Sánchez León with “El tumulto del sueño” have shown that they are in good shape, giving us some lasting texts in which the weight of the years and lost illusions are themes that are used from contemplation and urgency.

Other valuable books are the carefree “A house that does not exist” by Carla Valdivia, “Words of the cassowary” by Gabriela Atencio –which announces a stripped-down and original voice–, “El cantar de las agujas”, debut by Jaime Cabrera Junco, “Fifteen minutes of recess” by Cayre Alfaro -attentive inquiry into the intricacies of the poetry of language-, “Certain forms of fire” by Daniel Arenas -a precise tribute to the conversational tradition-, “Part” by Christian Briceño, “Una minor wound”, an anthology by Rocío Silva Santisteban, “The risk of creating institutions” by Manuel Fernández, “Language is a revolver for one” by Mario Montalbetti, “Estancias de Emilia Tangoa”, a refined incursion by Ana Varela Tafur and “Víscera Beltrán”, signed by Ana Carolina Zegarra; “Isabel and I” by José María Salazar, “La mujer” by Victoria Guerrero, “Jardín Mecánico” by Luis Cruz, “Magic Papyrus” by Katherine Medina Rondón, “Piece of the House” by Ana María Falconi and “A Spilled Clock in the desert” by Alejandro Susti. It is necessary to point out two fundamental reissues: “Preludios y fugas” by Luis Hernández, by Pesopluma, and “The hero and his relationship with the heroine” by Oswaldo Chanove, a beautiful work from the Album of the Bakterial Universe.

Novel

The rescue of the year is “Malambo”, a powerful fiction by Lucía Charún Illescas, the first Afro-Peruvian novelist. With a strong and euphonious aesthetic, this book means a restrained, latent carnival of destinations in which the edges of syncretism and the magic of atavistic fire guide a story expertly concocted. The irony that does not take prisoners and the nostalgia of the mud animate “Closing of edition”, the second novel by Juan Carlos Méndez, a great leap with respect to “The interior gang”, his inaugural publication. Richard Parra, with the entertaining “Little bastard”, confirms his mastery of the codes that structure the sordid world of the city and mental peripheries, as well as an unusual ability to illustrate the violent resistance against power. After five years of patient silence, Enrique Planas relapses into the Japanese pop imaginary with “Bond Girls”, a good novel that fables based on extensive knowledge of the facts.

Dante Trujillo made an appearance with “A brief, strange and brutal story”, a non-fiction novel about the frustrated uprising of the Gutiérrez brothers in 1872. The book contains very successful passages and its meticulous investigative work is to be celebrated, although there is a point at which the overload of information stagnates the agile flow of the story. Juan Carlos Ortecho surprised with “La fe de ayer” one of the cardinal titles of our sports literature – still in full swing – and one of the most implacable demystifications of the seventies that I have read.

We must also take into account “The Republic of Sparks” by Paul Baudry, “The Last One in the Tower” by Hugo Coya, “Who Are We Now” by Katya Adaui, “The Men Who Killed Spring” by Omar Aliaga , “Muchas veces dudé” by Luis Nieto Degregori, “Thirty kilometers at midnight” by Gustavo Rodríguez, the delirious “Croac”, by Ricardo Sumalavia, and the happy reissue of “La falaz posteridad” by Teresa Ruiz Rosas.

Tale

Malena Newton’s “Only one way to grow up in public” is a convincing panoramic flight through the ‘centennial’ universe not exempt from sharp irony and owner of a striking ability to make every detail vital: the revelation of the year without hesitation. Confronting aging and the shadow of our end is the motivation of “Methuselah”, another proof of Giovanna Pollarolo’s ability to reinvent herself, who here exhibits herself with a talent for making reflective texts that straddle poetry and prose. “A good taxi driver is difficult to find” by Aarón Alva reveals a young writer with the resources to build a particular private preserve in the territory of contemporary urban narrative.

Likewise, Félix Terrones and his “Notes from a passport”, Juan Carlos Lázaro and “La luna en la ventana”, the delicious “Tiny Horrors” by Carlos Herrera, “The darkest corner of heaven” by Mayte Mujica and “Mirarse to the face” by Alicia del Águila. Children’s literature had estimable fruits such as “Patichueca”, a collaboration between Katya Adaui and Eduardo Tokeshi, “Cholito and the cosmic snake”, by veteran Óscar Colchado Lucio, “Myth of the chilalo bird” by Cecilia Medina, “Uli, a squirrel of autumn ”, by Andrea Gago and “Run Run” by Fernando Ampuero. A special mention to the substantial “Anthology of the Peruvian micro-story” by the indefatigable maestro Ricardo González Vigil.

Non-fiction

Many essential books in this section, but the most outstanding is “Lo popular viene del futuro”, an extensive collection of articles and essays by Roberto Miró Quesada, a prominent left-wing intellectual who, like Alberto Flores Galindo, left us too soon. This volume compiles for the first time the bulk of his work, as dispersed as it is multidisciplinary. A timely reissue was “Campesinado y Nación” by Nelson Manrique; also that of “La caza sutil”, a classic by Julio Ramón Ribeyro, despite the joke of some of the new texts included.

Mario Vargas Llosa offered a study worked during the pandemic, “La mirada quieta”, on the narrative and theater of Benito Pérez Galdós; Although it meets his objectives, it is in the second line of his essay work, along with his approaches to Hugo and Onetti. More interesting was “Until I lose my breath”, an endearing literary blog by Guillermo Niño de Guzmán. “Los conservadoras” by Fernán Altuve-Febres, “From classicism to modernities” by Isaac León Frías and “Los juicios finales” by Peter Elmore are books written with a passion sustained by intellectual rigor: the best possible combination when it comes to start this kind of business.

It is worth highlighting “Homogenesis” by Joaquín Marreros, “Being a woman in Peru” by Josefina Miró Quesada and Hugo Ñopo, “Lawyers’ Stories”, by Eduardo Abusada and Luis Fernando Castellanos, “Hacedores de espanto” by Christiane Félip Vidal, “The sense of loneliness” by Roger Santiváñez, “The tragedy of Alonso Alcedo” by Fernando Luque, “Old and new literary animals”, compilation of interviews by Alonso Rabí, “Trilce, poem by poem” by Víctor Vich and Alexandra Hibbett , “Texts” by Harry Beleván, the critical edition of “Peruvian Traditions” by Pedro Díaz Ortiz, “South American Republics under construction” by Natalia Sobrevilla and “Open Case” by José Güich and Alejando Susti.