"El Yanqui is a novel about leave-taking... a coming-of-age novel set against the political and social turmoil of the late '60s in the United States and Argentina. Unger is adept... in a finely tuned straight-ahead narrative... he lets the action speak for itself."
— Newsday

"El Yanqui is a fast, entertaining novel; it limns a familiar time in an unfamiliar place with poignancy and style... Unger's re-creation of the '60s spacey idealism is perfect."
— USA Today

"Glistens with vividness.... Bright... funny... even exotic... An interesting twist to the rites of adolescence... Few contemporary novels combine the enthusiasm of youth with the perspective of maturity... but then few American novelists can match the verbal facility of its author."
— Seattle Times & Post Intelligencer

"Evocative.... Splendid... A mixture of charm, extravagance and melancholy."
— The Los Angeles Times

"Rich and detailed... Unger brings so much life to his writing and such insight to the workings of life itself that we are thrilled to read... This universe-in-a-grain-of-sand feeling... leaves the reader with a sense of having experienced life in Argentina on at least as many levels as its protagonist."
— San Francisco Chronicle

"A novel of considerable power.... A bleak yet powerful and unusual novel that vividly chronicles a young man's sexual encounters as it tracks his coming of age and the political ferment of the 1960s Argentina that surrounds him."
— Booklist

"Douglas Unger is a gifted novelist with a decidedly political bent.... He takes on everything from Vietnam to the Latin American military to Juan and Evita Peron to the 'disappeared' of Argentina, with a number of other stops along the way.... Parallels are drawn between the behavior of the generals in Argentina and that of the United States in Vietnam.... Unger is an accomplished writer so El Yanqui is a pleasure to read."
— The Washington Post