He now lives in Barcelona, Spain, and has two Mexican-Brazilian-Italian-Catalan children. His debut novel, Down the Rabbit Hole, is published in English translation by And Other Stories and is on the Guardian first book award longlist.
“Tochtli lives in a palace. He loves hats, samurai, guillotines and dictionaries, and what he wants more than anything right now is a new pet for his private zoo: a pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia. But Tochtli is a child whose father is a drug baron on the verge of taking over a powerful cartel, and Tochtli is growing up in a luxury hideout that he shares with hit men, prostitutes, dealers, servants and the odd corrupt politician or two.”
Lucy Popescu: What inspired you to write Down the Rabbit Hole and what is the significance of its title?
Juan Pablo Villalobos: I started to write the novel when I found out that my wife was pregnant, the book is dedicated to my son Mateo, my oldest kid. At first I wanted to write the story of a boy who had an absurd caprice that was impossible to satisfy. As I structured the narrative I realized it would be more interesting to talk about a boy who had an absurd caprice that could be satisfied. Who would he be? I asked myself, and this led me to the almighty ones and to the drug trafficking theme in Mexico. The novel is an initiation story of learning about power. Twenty years ago I would have written the same story but Tochtli would have been the son of a politician. Tochtli and Usagi, his Japanese name, mean “rabbit” and the English title refers to the rabbit hole of Alice in the Wonderland.
LP: How long did it take you to write Down the Rabbit Hole?
JPV: Writing it didn’t take long, it was around 6 months, but the whole process took me other 4-5 months of preparation before I started writing and almost 2 years of corrections until the definitive version. Three years in total.
LP: Do you have a particular writing routine?
JPV: I love writing very early in the morning. The routine is waking up around 7 am, preparing coffee, toast with marmalade, and sitting down to write. Down the Rabbit Hole was written between 7 am and 11 am under the impact of blessed coffee.
LP: Some people call Tochtli “precocious” because he knows difficult words. Were you precocious as a child?
JPV: I was a normal kid, but I was obsessed with my grades at school, I wouldn’t accept anything but the greatest possible marks. My relationship with knowledge was encyclopedic, I used to love – and I still do – to accumulate data. I also had a very good memory, now it is not so good, time shows no mercy.
LP: Why a pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia?
JPV: The hippopotamus The hippopotamus is my fetish animal, I just love it as a symbol of the absurd is my fetish animal, I just love it as a symbol of the absurd. I thought of a pigmy hippopotamus from Liberia to make Tochtli’s caprice even more radical, he wants an animal that not only is exotic, but is also in danger of extinction. Besides, speaking of Liberia allows me to reflect about Africa. And also – maybe this is hard for the English reader to understand – the sentence “pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia”, which is repeated like a mantra over the book, has a very beautiful musicality in Spanish.
LP: Down the Rabbit Hole provides a vivid snapshot of Mexico’s darker side, written from Tochtli’s perspective. This enables you to satirise the corruption, violence and atrocities of the drug cartels. Did you find it hard to write about such serious subjects using a young voice?
JPV: I’m often asked if it’s worth writing about such topics from a comic perspective. I’m interested in asserting humour as a path to knowledge. I believe that Latin-American literature in general, and Mexican literature in particular, is too serious. Here is where I connect with British humour, which is a very important influence for me, from Laurence Sterne – who I adore – to Evelyn Waugh.
LP: You also touch on some of the issues facing those who try to expose corruption or write about the drug wars. Mexico is now considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a journalist. According to PEN, a total of 42 print journalists and writers have been killed in Mexico since 2004, while 10 more have gone missing. What do you think is the solution for writers and journalists to be able to write freely about the criminal gangs and corruption without fearing for their lives?
JPV: This is the duty of the Mexican government, to ensure that every citizen is safe, something they are not doing now. Our justice system is rotten and there is a very dangerous divorce between government and society.
LP: How did your Mexican readers receive the novel?
JPV: The novel I believe that there are no wasted topics and that everything depends on what you do with such a topic, in the way you narrate had a good critical reception in Mexico. It is also true that sometimes it is easily considered as “narcoliteratura” without even being read. Some readers talk about a saturation of the traffic topic, which swamps the tables of new books in Mexican bookshops, but most of all with journalistic texts. I believe that there are no wasted topics and that everything depends on what you do with such a topic, in the way you narrate. Besides, I insist that more than a “narconovel”, Down the Rabbit Hole is an initiation novel.
LP: When did you begin writing?
JPV: When I was a teenager, around 13-14 years old, with some horrible and depressing poems that mimicked rock songs lyrics, most of them inspired by British bands, by the way.
LP: Describe your writing space.
JPV: I write in different spaces, I don’t think the space where you write is something fundamental. I’m more concerned about the support, the tool you write with. Down the Rabbit Hole was written on a laptop, but now I’m writing in a gorgeous German notebook I bought in Berlin. I’m sure this makes a difference.
LP: Who were the writers you admired when you first began writing and who are you reading now?
JPV: Talking about Spanish literature only, I’m happy to say I was pretty young when I read the great names of 20th century Latin-American literature. The ones I liked the most were Rulfo, Borges, Onetti, Arlt, Ibargüengoitia. Later I found out a group of writers considered “rare”, marginal, who became a school to me: Felisberto Hernández, Pablo Palacio, Efrén Hernández, Francisco Tario, Juan Emar, among others. Nowadays the ones that interest me the most are César Aira, Daniel Sada, Alan Pauls… and Roberto Bolaño, obviously. I still think the greatest book of all times is El Quijote and I just love all the tradition of picaresque novels.
LP: What are you working on next?
JPV: On another novel, it's a sentimental story of corruption. My idea is that together with Down the Rabbit Hole and a third novel - which is already in my head - they can form a trilogy about violence, corruption and the exercise of power, always from a family, father-son relationship perspective.
Upcoming events
EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL
Juan Pablo Villalobos (and David Whitehouse) - Monday 15 August; 5:00pm – 6:00pm; RBS Corner Theatre, Edinburgh
LONDON
And Other Stories no.s 1 and 2 launch
Wednesday 17 August, 6.30pm.
The European Bookshop, 5 Warwick Street, London W1B 5LU
At the European Bookshop, Clemens Meyer and Juan Pablo Villalobos will talk about their work and read some carefully selected extracts from All The Lights and Down the Rabbit Hole with their translators Katy Derbyshire and Rosalind Harvey.
Followed by a Q&A session and the vital drinks reception.
Free, booking essential. Please email the European Bookshop:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
CHICHESTER
Juan Pablo Villalobos on Mexican Literature
Juan Pablo will talk about contemporary Mexican literature and read from his newly launched novel Down the Rabbit Hole. This talk accompanies the Mexican art exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery.
Thursday 18th August, 6pm. Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
