Pablo Enrique Manuel Hernandez was on his way to the biggest game of his life. He was once the most famous and best basketball player around. But then the tragedy happened. Today, he was a man who had reached the prime of his life, his fifties, and in his person-broad forehead, aquiline nose, a penetrating gaze, and the very sole of rectitude and goodness. However today Pablo was not going to play in the game today, but to coach it.
3.
The narrators of this novel are Mario Vargas Llosa, Marito, and Pedro Camacho. Each one of these narrators is there for a different purpose. Pedro serves the purpose of writing magical realism and adding comedy to the work. And since this work is semi-autobiographical Mario Vargas Llosa is in a way talking through Marito. Marito brings a sense of reality to the story.
4.
Sgt. Lituma is a minor character that appears repeatedly throughout the even chapters. The one thing that seams constant throughout the even chapters is that Lituma remains a character with high moral standards. This is important to the book, because in the even chapters he is just about the only one who has any morals.
5.
Big Pablito is a minor character found throughout the odd chapters. He is important to the novel from a social standpoint. He was pretty much a nobody lackey at the radio station throughout the novel. At the end of the book though, you come to find out he has become a very successful man.
6.
The unique structure in this novel is very noticeable. Every other chapter was about something totally different. They are connected because as Pedro is going insane in the chapters narrated by Marito, the characters in Pedro's serials were getting increasingly getting mixed up.
7.
This novel exhibits several different traits of Latin American culture. The novel shows that it might be a cultural norm for people to marry within their family, which Mario did twice. Mario also as a relatively young man married an older woman.
