Magic realism

is a term that is often used to describe the fiction of such Latin American writers as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Cortazar and Jorge Luis Borges. Literary critics such as Seymour Menton have contended that it is also present in the art and literature of Germany, Italy, France and the United States after World War I.

The stories in French Quarter Tales follow such a tradition by presenting unusual (and even supernatural) situations within very familiar settings. Professor Perez explores in these stories the boundaries between reality and the supernatural, love and hate, good and evil. In these tales the everyday meets the recondite and sometimes even the terrifying. Most of these postmodern short tales are left open and defy interpretation.