Quesadillas

'Piles absurdity upon improbability with gleeful abandon. Yet the book is as much a coruscating parody of Mexican culture as Villalobos's debut, Down the Rabbit Hole, which was shortlisted for the 2011 Guardian first book award . . . Quesadillas, translated by Rosalind Harvey, does for magic realism what Down the Rabbit Hole did for "narco-literature" . . . The high-keyed domestic comedy is enjoyable for its own sake, but provides cover for a satirical assault on the mendacity of Mexican politics.'

-- Alfred Hickling * The Guardian *

‘Off the beaten track, Juan Pablo Villalobos followed up his Guardian first book award-shortlisted Down the Rabbit Hole with a satire of Mexican politics and dysfunctional families, Quesadillas (And Other Stories): black comedy done with a light touch, it's stylish, scabrous, and hugely enjoyable.'

-- Justine Jordan * The Guardian *

‘A raucous picaresque . . . structured like a memory, elliptical and episodic . . . The novel’s irreverent tone and brevity bring to mind the satires of Villalobos’s countryman, Jorge Ibargüengoitia; and in its extreme situations and fantastical occurrences we see a concerted attack on literary realism.’

-- Matt Lewis * Times Literary Supplement *

‘Short, dark, comic, ribald and surreal . . . manic-impressive.'

-- Dwight Garner * New York Times *

‘Villalobos mines Mexico for its everyday surrealism, even as he mocks how outsiders exoticize his country.’

-- Rachel Nolan * New York Times *

'Villalobos . . . fuses personal mythologies and political margins in his new novel, a riotous tall tale . . . Calling it magical realism would be lazy, given the undertone of socially conscious indignation that underlies often-fantastical imagery . . . With tidy, uncompromised prose, Villalobos has inaugurated a new kind of avant-garde novel, one whose grasp of certain dehumanizing political realities never erodes the power to dream something better.'

* Publishers Weekly *

‘Guaranteed to entertain, from its attention-grabbing opening line to its gloriously bizarre climax.’

-- Ángel Gurría-Quintana * Financial Times *

‘Villalobos’s latest book, Quesadillas, is surreal, and not without laughs – the stoner uncle is called Pink Floyd.’

-- Sinead Gleeson * Irish Times *

'Quesadillas is gloriously absurd, celebrates the fantastical, and plays with notions of magic realism. But it is Villalobos’s quirky, laconic style that most impresses and marks him out as a writer of distinction.'

-- Lucy Popescu * Independent *

‘Quesadillas is bursting with Villalobos’ comic invention.’

* El País *

‘The modern novel’s three commands are that it should be “Funny, Brutalist and short”, in our hero B.S. Johnson’s words. Villalobos’ Quesadillas fulfils this perfectly.’

-- Kiko Amat

‘Pure fantastical rapture, a kaleidoscopic story about anger and adolescence.’

-- Julie Morse * The Rumpus *

‘An entertaining satire on political corruption in 1980’s Mexico . . . this picaresque coming-of-age story goes from the absurdist to the totally surreal, engaging the reader without sentimentality.’

-- Anne Horton-Smith * Whichbook *

'Fascinating, thought-provoking and involving'

* Empty the Bookshelf *

‘Quesadillas marks Juan Pablo Villalobos out as a talent to watch . . . hopefully [he] grows into an important voice coming out of Central America.'

-- Matt Tod * A Novel Approach *

‘[a] vibrant, comic novel’

-- Leigh Newman * Oprah.com *

‘A rambunctious, energetic piece of writing. Madcap and effervescent, this story of a teenager’s desire to escape his dull, supposedly middle class family home is an education and entertainment. An education because it gives us insights into another country’s way of life . . . Entertainment, because you’ll laugh out loud from page one till you catch your breath at the end . . . Rosalind Harvey’s translation captures the exuberance of the original, and this short novel is accompanied by author’s notes, a glossary, and an introduction by Neel Mukherjee which sets the context for this magic realist / absurd / riotous satire of economic and political aspiration.’

* Booktru