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<h1 class="reader-title">Horizontal Vertigo by Juan Villoro:
9781524748883 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books</h1>
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Vertigo by Juan Villoro" style=""></p>
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<div class="clearfix isbn-related 9781524748883 show"> Hardcover
| $30.00 <br>
Published by Pantheon<br>
<span class="ws-nw">Mar 23, 2021</span> <span class="ws-nw">|
368 Pages</span> <span class="ws-nw">| 6-1/8 x 9-1/4</span>
<span class="ws-nw isbn-row">| ISBN 9781524748883</span> <br>
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<h4 class="slot-header">About <span>Horizontal Vertigo</span></h4>
<p>At once intimate and wide-ranging, and as enthralling,
surprising, and vivid as the place itself, this is a uniquely
eye-opening tour of one of the great metropolises of the
world, and its largest Spanish-speaking city.<br>
<br>
<em>Horizontal Vertigo: </em>The title refers to the fear of
ever-impending earthquakes that led Mexicans to build their
capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity
of a keenly observant flaneur, Juan Villoro wanders through
Mexico City seemingly without a plan, describing people,
places, and things while brilliantly drawing connections among
them. In so doing he reveals, in all its multitudinous glory,
the vicissitudes and triumphs of the city ’s cultural,
political, and social history: from indigenous antiquity to
the Aztec period, from the Spanish conquest to Mexico City
today—one of the world’s leading cultural and financial
centers.<br>
<br>
In this deeply iconoclastic book, Villoro organizes his text
around a recurring series of topics: “Living in the City,”
“City Characters,” “Shocks,” “Crossings,” and “Ceremonies.”
What he achieves, miraculously, is a stunning, intriguingly
coherent meditation on Mexico City’s genius loci, its spirit
of place.</p>
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<p>“Villoro recounts his adventures with a mix of irony and empathy,
with a sense of humor and a feeling for the absurd. He is
exquisitely attuned to the capital’s contradictions and nuances,
and he knows how to listen to its inhabitants. There are deeply
moving moments in this book.”<br>
<strong><em>—The New York Times </em>Book Review</strong>“One of
Mexico’s most celebrated contemporary writers offers an
affectionate exploration of the country’s capital city.
[Villoro] does not shy away from issues of poverty, class, and
gender, and the result is an enthralling, often funny depiction of
a city that “overflowed urbanism and installed itself in
mythology.”<strong><br>
<em>—The New Yorker</em></strong></p>
<p>“<em>Horizontal Vertigo</em> is the best<strong><em>—</em></strong>wittiest,
wisest, most detailed and enlightened<strong><em>—</em></strong>book
I’ve read about Mexico City. It is both deeply personal and
scholarly, and most of all humane and humorous – Juan Villoro’s
triumph as a chronicler of Mexican life.”<br>
<strong><em>—</em>Paul Theroux, author of <em>On the Plain of
Snakes: A Mexican Journey</em></strong></p>
<p>“The joy of <em>Horizontal Vertigo</em> is that it offers a
unique entry into Mexico City’s “inexhaustible encyclopedia” of
people, places and old traditions, complementing the history books
and outperforming the tour guides… Villoro is so closely
identified with Mexico City that it’s impossible to imagine how
one can be known without the other, which is why his writings
consistently employ the communal “we,” as in this telling
statement about the unbreakable bond between Chilangopolis and
chilangos: “What was once a cityscape is now our autobiography.”<br>
<strong><em>—The Los Angeles Times</em></strong>“Juan Villoro, one
of Mexico’s leading novelists, delivers a contemporary portrait of
Mexico City that is as diverse and labyrinthine as the city
itself. In Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico, he weaves
together voices, styles and disciplines in a personal and
expansive exploration, a flâneur through geography, history and
culture.”<br>
<strong><em>—The Guardian</em></strong></p>
“Deeply learned . . . Along his leisurely, illuminating path,
Villoro delivers an essential update of Octavio Paz’s <em>The
Labyrinth of Solitude</em> (1950). He can be both brittle and
funny . . . Celebrating food, wandering through earthquake-struck
ruins, reflecting on literary heroes, Villoro makes an excellent
Virgil. An unparalleled portrait of a city in danger of growing past
all reasonable limits.″<br>
<strong><em><strong><em>—</em></strong>Kirkus Reviews</em> [starred
review]</strong>“This is a stimulating portrait of one of the
world’s most mind-bending metropolises.″<strong><br>
<em><strong><em>—</em></strong>Publishers Weekly</em></strong>“Villoro
applies his witty and incisive pen to the monster that is Mexico
City . . . Villoro’s voice is engaging, and the subject matter,
fascinating . . . An unusual and rewarding read for all who love or
are intrigued by Mexico City.″<br>
<strong><em><strong><em>—</em></strong>Booklist<br>
</em></strong><em><br>
</em>“This is Villoro’s masterpiece . . . His great achievement in
Horizontal Vertigo resides in his ability to understand and make the
city known through different characters, occupations, and beliefs.
Although many writers have been interested in Mexico City, such as
Carlos Monsiváis and Carlos Fuentes, Juan Villoro finds a new,
postmodern way of portraying the contemporary city.”<strong><em><br>
<strong>—<em>World Literature Today</em></strong><br>
<em> </em><br>
</em></strong>“One of the ten best nonfiction books of the year. A
superheroic effort to tame the urban chaos that was born of an
ecocide: the drying up of a lake. No city is wilder, more monstrous
than Mexico’s capital. And few writers know it with more precision
and passion than Juan Villoro.”<em><br>
</em><strong><em> <strong>—<em>The New York Times en Español</em></strong></em></strong>
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