Hard work, but worth the effort - Rated 
I gave up reading this novel the first time, because I became confused and irritated with the non-sequential (and at times, non-sensical) development of the story and the continual shift of perspective from one character, scene or setting to another. At times, when not even a new paragraph is given to indicate a change of character, it felt as though Vargas Llosa was just trying to experiment, seeing how far he could push the reader's patience and powers of concentration. I failed the first time and gave up.
I re-read this book again a year of so later, and this time found it much more rewarding and more fluid. It is not a book you can pick up and read in a spare moment, you need to set aside a few hours or days to really get to grips with the story and understand the tempo and the flow. At first the plot seems like a puzzle and you try to fit all the pieces together, but this novel is more like a river that meanders, has a different currents and speeds and you really have to let yourself go and get swept along. You just have to trust the author will get you there in the end, which he does. I am really pleased I re-read this novel, because I would have really missed out had I not.
The Green House - Rated
This novel typifies Vargas Llosa's non-sequential narrational techniques and his use of alternating dialogues to portray scenarios that are separate in space and time. A willfully experimental and uncompromising author that goes to great lengths to disorientate and unsettle the reader, The Green House is one of his most challenging. Try to follow every thread and you will find this a frustrating read, alow yourself to absorb its atmosphere and get lost in its tangential nature and you might be rewarded. Set in Piura, an isolated coastal town hemmed in by the mountains and desert - the oldest Colonial town in Peru - it intertwines individual stories of love and loss all connected to the eponymous brothel. It also looks the conflict between nature and civilisation, as a missionary church struggles to exorcise a perceived savagery in the native jungle communities. Be warned, this can be hard work, but it is a rich and evocative journey into the national psyche of Peru.
Vargas Llosa at his best - Rated 
This is a truly beautiful book, though to start with hard to get into, the interwining stories, can at time be confusing, but if you've read any of his other books, it is a common theme in his writing. It is in summary a book about love in all its different forms, and about how easy it is to lose it. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone, for me, his best book.
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