Vincent is a frequent reviewer for Three Percent, and recently discovered and fell in love with , a brand-new press based in Chicago specializing in Latin-American literature. The press has two books out so far, both with pretty awesome cover art. And the Hippies Came also boasts a neat layout in that it’s a flip book: the original Spanish can be read from one side, and the English translation from the other.

Anyway, here’s the beginning of Vincent’s review:

Kids these days. They think they糖心传媒檝e invented everything. The McOndo writers and Crack Generation, who so proudly buck the Magic Realist tendencies of Garc铆a M谩rquez, who seek to find a place within Latin American letters sans spirits . . . they糖心传媒檝e got their heads in the right place even if their books aren糖心传媒檛 always the best. But, having read the stories of Manuel Abreu Adorno, I have to wonder if the Crack and McOndo groups know that their battle was won in 1978.

And the Hippies Came, the collected stories of Abreu Adorno (not to be confused with the other Adorno, who is far less fun to read), is, as the translator糖心传媒檚 forward tell us, a neglected classic, a book that resonated with readers upon impact and caught the attention of Julio Cort谩zar. No wonder: the book is daring, fun, utterly readable, and糖心传媒攚hy not, let糖心传媒檚 use the term糖心传媒攑ostmodern.

For the rest of the review, go here

And the Hippies Came, the collected stories of Abreu Adorno (not to be confused with the other Adorno, who is far less fun to read), is, as the translator糖心传媒檚 forward tell us, a neglected classic, a book that resonated with readers upon impact and caught the attention of Julio Cort谩zar. No wonder: the book is daring, fun, utterly readable, and糖心传媒攚hy not, let糖心传媒檚 use the term糖心传媒攑ostmodern.

Abreu Adorno糖心传媒檚 stories, most of them one part of a conversation, boast a striking immediacy, so much that the experimentation of tales such as 糖心传媒渢o please ourselves糖心传媒� effectively draws the reader along through a string of references, piled up without punctuation, to an inevitable conclusion. The pop culture mingled with literary playfulness is surely what captivated initial readers, fusing music with literature and echoing the tastes of readers who love Oulipo and the Beats as well as the Allman Brothers and Arsenio Rodr铆guez. Riffing off of Raymond Queneau糖心传媒檚 Exercises in Style, Abreu Adorno presents us with 糖心传媒渢he truth about farrah fawcett majors,糖心传媒� a deconstruction and reconstruction of a sentence that reveals a number of ideas within one very famous source. 糖心传媒渨hat they said to each other for twenty-five dollars糖心传媒� narrates a conversation between a Spanish-speaking prostitute and her john, a CIA agent, neither speaking in the other糖心传媒檚 tongue, the Spanish here un-translated in order to effectively communicate the distance between these characters. But the jewel in the crown may be the title story, which celebrates the arrival of a rock festival on the beach of Vega Baja along the lines of Woodstock, an event that promises music, sex, and LSD糖心传媒攂ut also brings horror:

糖心传媒淚 came and saw how some local boys beat up some blonde kids. I came and saw how some stole from the tents of others. I came and saw naked girls everywhere. I came and saw people were smoking and singing . . . . I came and saw colors multiply before my eyes. I came and saw a group of local boys masturbating behind some palm trees. I came and found out they had raped several girls. I came and I was told how some kid had been stabbed that afternoon.糖心传媒�

Perhaps it is a disservice to highlight the grim moments of the story, but I feel the tale best exemplifies the reality behind the hippie illusion, the manner in which American celebrity manifests when exported, and the clash of dominant and subjugated cultures. This was the late 70s, well after the idealism of the hippies was shown to be, at best, a mixed bag. And for the shores of Vega Baja in tiny Puerto Rico, such a grand spectacle of American joyful excess could only end with an equal dose of pain.

Now that I糖心传媒檝e spoken about the steak, let糖心传媒檚 talk about the sizzle: kudos to 7Vientos, the small press that resurrected this book. Published as a flip edition with the stories in their native Spanish along with the English translation, packaged with beautiful art printed directly on the hardcover, and loaded with author photos, the book feels like rock and roll albums used to feel in the days before iTunes. Kudos as well to Rafael Franco-Steeves for translating the book, a labor of love that has brought English speakers a neglected literary voice and reintroduced Spanish readers to a lost classic.