The writing thrills to the racial and linguistic diversity of New Orleans, its roil of bodies and babel of noise. Mr. Herrera wonderfully captures Juárez’s bewilderment and awe when stumbling upon a Mardi Gras parade.
It is a testament to Yuri Herrera’s virtuosic talents that his new novel, Season of the Swamp, manages to breathe new life into a character who had long become a wax figure ... Muscular prose ... Vividly rendered ... I, for one, don’t feel inclined to reproach the author for preferring an accumulation of detail to the concatenation of events.
Evocative...crisply translated ... Brilliantly conveyed ... These vividly imagined encounters, Herrera suggests, helped fuel Juárez’s desire to emancipate his own people on his return to Mexico.
Herrera’s prodigious skill with language is on display, but his brevity feels mismatched to the novella’s material, leaving any grander ideas more implied than satisfyingly explored.
Mesmerizing ... As glorious and messy as the best New Orleans gumbo, the novel comes together as Herrera vividly depicts the chaos of Mardi Gras, during which Benito is frightened and charmed in equal measure; the unsavory characters with whom he forms uneasy alliances; and his phantasmagorical dreams while fighting a bout of yellow fever. It’s a triumph.
