[Exorcismos de esti(l)o] contains graphic razzle-dazzle and verbal rat-tat-tat [which] masks one of the most innovative and daring experiments with the Spanish language from one of the most significant Latin American writers today. For the potpourri of puns, parodies, pastiches, word squares and other jeux d'esprit belies the intrinsic earnestness of Cabrera Infante's work…. [Exorcismos de esti(l)o consists of] hilarious parodies of authors, literary genres and schools of criticism: from Plutarch, Shakespeare and Quevedo to St. John of the Cross; fables which Aesop, La Fontaine or Samaniego never dared to write; and painful needling of the Tel Quel group.

As we might guess from sections titled "Acido (P)Rúsico" and "Marxismas," the targets are politically predictable at times and turn out to be prominent figures of the Cuban Revolution, Stalinism, the Moscow trials, as well as the inherent contradictions of Communist party orthodoxy...