As a linguist, I enjoyed this book SO much! It is originally written in English, but in many parts it's written in an English that is intended to give the impression that it's a translation from Spanish, while preserving dialect features. In some points, the author takes this conceit a step further by introducing Anglophones into the Hispanic milieu, and altering the syntax of the English text to give the impression of what Anglophone syntax used in the Spanish language sounds like to Hispanophones. It's all very exciting!
Plotwise, the book could benefit from more clues and fewer red herrings. The "mystery" of the book is the identity of the father of the protagonist's child, but the book spends too much time focusing on the people who AREN'T the father, so the reader couldn't have figured it out themselves. When books have a mystery element, I really prefer to have a chance of figuring it out myself, or at least look back and see clues (c.f. Prisoner of Azkaban). However, this book is still worth reading just for the linguistic goodness.
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