The Cool World

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The President of the Crocodiles became a sensation on the literary scene. This balladic story revolves around prematurely adult children trapped in a ghetto, where they can only earn the respect of others through violence. It is narrated from the perspective of one of the characters, using their language. The translator faced the challenge of conveying the text in slang, a revolutionary step for the time. This made it difficult to publish the finished translation, as authorities were concerned about American realities, references to sex, and drugs. The novel has been published multiple times; while the slang captured in the translation differs from contemporary speech, it remains a lively, readable, and vibrant translation. The story it tells has lost none of its impact.