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A review by shanviolinlove
Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos
5.0
This is my third romp with Villalobos and the slim book that put his name on bookshelves; despite his reputation as a humorous writer, I never really did more than smile at some of his other works, as they were aimed more at satire than humor. Indeed, Down the Rabbit Hole is potent with incisive critiques, but I couldn't help laughing at the sharp dialogue, Tochtli's unabashed honesty that was simultaneously shrewd and ignorant, childishly selfish and childishly innocent.
Like many books that employ a child narrator to juxtapose against a very adult situation (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, among others), this book was jarring in the unfiltered violence common among drug lords and witnessed (albeit peripherally) by the drug baron's precocious son. He houses many eccentric hobbies and collections in the obscenely ornate mansion that he and his single father occupy. His desires, however outlandish (to add a Nigerian pygmy hippopotamus to his backyard exotic zoo), are also sweetly heartfelt. The closest he has to a friend is his teacher, but the unquestioned list of lavish purchases distracts him enough from realizing the cost of his father's life--an extravagant world of isolation. I said I laughed many times while reading this novel, but it is ultimately a sad story, even if the narrator himself does not realize this.
Like many books that employ a child narrator to juxtapose against a very adult situation (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, among others), this book was jarring in the unfiltered violence common among drug lords and witnessed (albeit peripherally) by the drug baron's precocious son. He houses many eccentric hobbies and collections in the obscenely ornate mansion that he and his single father occupy. His desires, however outlandish (to add a Nigerian pygmy hippopotamus to his backyard exotic zoo), are also sweetly heartfelt. The closest he has to a friend is his teacher, but the unquestioned list of lavish purchases distracts him enough from realizing the cost of his father's life--an extravagant world of isolation. I said I laughed many times while reading this novel, but it is ultimately a sad story, even if the narrator himself does not realize this.