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Overview
Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Set in the '60s, Genaro González's most recent novel plays on Kerouac as much as Cervantes in spinning the tale of De la O, a Chicano college student and would-be radical. With his gang of friends, De la O embarks on a series of wild road trips in search of political, spiritual, and chemical fulfillment. The Nation has written of the author, The creatures of his imagination combust into their own living, full-color reality. THE QUIXOTE CULT is González's third book with Arte Público; the first two, RAINBOW'S END and ONLY SONS, are also available from SPD.
Synopsis
Like a Carlos Santana riff on a Miguel de Cervantes theme, The Quijote Cult is a lyrical, satirical look at a group of Vietnam-era Chicano college students - and would-be radical activists - who gulp down amphetamines as eagerly as they devour the writings of Che Guevara and Jack Kerouac. The embattled hero, known simply as De la O, must deal with adversaries such as hostile family members ("Think your scholarship money will cover getting a haircut?"), budding feminists ("What's wrong with being a big mama?"), baffled professors ("You know what octopus is?"), and, of course, drunken dentists ("Such a messy and unheroic way to die"). In search of political, spiritual, and chemical fulfillment, De la 0 and his freewheeling friends Lizard, Nacho, Coco, and Gabi zoom madly across the continent - south to Mexico City, north to Michigan, and west to California. At last, though, he begins to wonder, Who's zoomin' who?