This article examines two novels by the Peruvian writer Alfredo Bryce Echenique, No me esperen en abril and El huerto de mi amada, both dedicated to memoirs of adolescence and youth in Lima, to the dilemmas of early love, and the oppressive mechanism of social control. In this scenario of classes, a peculiar "art of the novel" takes shape as biography of the period and social satire. From the melancholic model of Don Quijote, Bryce presents a satirical version of the traditional society through its more typical characters and topics. But behind the humorous rendering, these novels are a most systematic critique of that society.