Disposed Matter— Juan Villoro

After the 1957 earthquake expelled his family from the cosmopolitan center of Mexico City, Mauricio Guardiola spent his childhood and adolescence on the streets of Terminal Progreso, a neighborhood embedded in the semi-rural landscape of Xochimilco that seems to have crystallized the promises of a bright future into simple nostalgia for what lies ahead. In the shadow of his father – a vehement and womanizing architect, obsessed with capturing Mexican identity in his constructions – and haunted by the uplifting phrases his mother posts on the refrigerator door, Mauricio embarks on sexuality, friendship, falling in love, and the search for his vocation with the help of a series of characters defined by their quirks. But is it even possible to acquire firm convictions on shaky ground? In a territory as wavering as Mexico City, any certainty can seem absurd.

With athletic prose and a great sense of humor, Juan Villoro constructs an ironic inversion of the coming-of-age novel in which adulthood is shown as a condition of insufficiency. More than twenty years after its first publication, Almadía reissues Materia dispuesta, a crucible of the obsessions and literary genius of one of the most recognized and beloved writers in the Spanish language.

No. Pages: 280 / Dimensions: 21.5 cm (Height) x 14 cm (Width)

ISBN: 9786078851294