Down The Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos
| Down The Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Steve Shayler
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| Summary: A charming and unsettling little book about a young boy’s view on life within a Mexican drug cartel. This is a good short story for adults and has an interesting approach on the world of drug barons and those who cross them. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 80 | Date: July 2013 |
| Publisher: And Other Stories | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1908276285 | |
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Down The Rabbit Hole is a fictional tale of a young boy’s life as the son of a Mexican drug lord. Tochtli narrates the story and gives us a child’s view of the sordid world that his father rules. We are shown the positives and negatives of this kind of lifestyle as Tochtli sees things, from presents galore to having to call his father by his first name. This book is a strange blend of childlike wonder within a violent world.
It's an unusual little book that is in equal parts charming and disturbing. The story is written from the point of view of a young boy but with very adult themes. This is a child who has seen what no child should but doesn’t know better and so views it all in a very naïve way. Tochtli is a typical but bright little boy with funny little obsessions from hats and samurai to the execution of French monarchy. He's an endearing narrator but his nonchalance when it comes to the violence in the world around him and his desire to live up to his dad’s image of a man can be quite unsettling.
Juan Pablo Villalobos writes from a child’s perspective quite convincingly and the book does feel at times that it could have been written by a very intelligent young boy. Totchli is an interesting character and an effective device to show the wrong side of the tracks from an innocent’s perspective. His observations are simultaneously amusing and shocking and have the effect of trivialising the violence of the illegal drugs world. I found this to be in good fun but it is clearly also meant to make us think. This is a story where what is not said is almost as important as what is. We view what Totchli describes with an adult understanding and have a better impression of what is going on in his life than he does. Where Totchli see’s new friends and presents we see prostitutes and bribes. It is quite unusual to read a book where you feel that you are translating what is written from child to adult, but I thought it made the book a lot more interesting and rewarding.
There's very little plot and is instead more an account of a short period in Totchli’s life, a time that to Totchli is defined by his desire to own a pet Liberian pygmy hippopotamus. At only 80 pages the story doesn’t need a complicated plot and it wouldn’t be as effective if it did. The story is written almost as though it were diary entries and the length and style of writing works well for this.
Totchli is proud to know many impressive words for a boy of his age, and although this helps make the narration believably childlike it can also make the writing a little repetitive at times. This doesn’t detract anything from the story as a whole though and the book remains an interesting read.
Down The Rabbit Hole is an enjoyable little tale that made me think about more than what was written. I liked Totchli and the glimpses he gives into the dark and mysterious life of a Mexican drug baron. This is a good one-sitting read that is delivered in an interesting and innovative way and is more than the quirky book cover description suggests.
Many thanks to the publishers for an interesting little book.
For more stories from a child’s perspective I would recommend Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl the master of childlike wonder.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Down The Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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