Juan Pablo Villalobos: Fiesta en la madriguera (Down the Rabbit Hole)

The latest addition to my website is Juan Pablo VillalobosFiesta en la madriguera (Down the Rabbit Hole). This is a Mexican drug novel (narcoliteratura) with a difference. It is narrated by a child, the son of a drug dealer. Tochtli, the child in question, lives with his father, Yolcaut, and various auxiliaries, including well-armed security guards, not to mention a lion and two tigers, whose job is to consume the inevitable corpses. When things start getting difficult – drug dealers deported to the US and open warfare – they decide to take a trip to Liberia as Tolchtli wants to add some pygmy hippopotamuses, found in Liberia, to add to his private zoo. The strength of this book is seeing the horrors of drug dealing through the eyes of Tolchtli, who is inevitably naive and innocent while wanting to be one of the gang, which makes for a funny and playful book.

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