narrating Pantoja.

In her blog on a the same subject, Katrina Sinno describes Captain Pantoja and the Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa as complicated, “I was distracted with the format and what felt like interruptions in letters.” I completely understand this feeling. As Sinno points out, the interruptions help fill out the story’s details, however it can be difficult to adjust from one writing form to another. I believe, however, that once one understands that this story be told through different narratives (similar to Bram Stoker’s Dracula) this aspect of the book is easier to cope with than the jump from scene to scene within the more traditional third-person narrative portions of the novel.

From one paragraph to the next, the scenes jump in time, setting, and swap characters. This is almost cinematic in an extreme way—constant montages or cutting from scene to scene without notice. As the novel begins this way, I found it difficult to get my bearings. By the middle of the novel, I began to actually appreciate this style. Around page 100, the switches between Pantoja with the Brazilian and his wife and mother talking helped build the tension between his two lives. Also, if an interaction is referenced, it is often the scene of the next paragraph, which further explains relationships and scenarios. I’m not sure I’m completely behind this way of storytelling yet, but I am able to see its benefits.