Love and Sex in Mario Vargas Llosa\u27s \u27Quien mato a Palomino Molero?\u27

Mario Vargas Llosa\u27s murder mystery Quien mato a Palomino Molero? , while certainly as entertaining an example of its genre as one would expect from an author of such universally acknowledged narrative skill, is ultimately less a tale of complicated sleuthing than it is a commentary on collective corruption, social injustice and base human nature. Against a sharply defined backdrop of the class system in his native Peru, Vargas Llosa registers in this novel the socio-political reality that oppresses the individual by limiting his opportunities, both personal and professional, and dooming to failure any attempt to escape the mandates of systemic social stratification. The author achieves his bleak portrayal of Peruvian society in a number of ways, but primary among them is his presentation of the theme of forbidden love and his use of coarse sexual imagery and counterpoint. It is through thematic considerations associated with problematic love and sex that Vargas Llosa creates a scenario in Quien mato a Palomino Molero