"This study takes a fresh look at the picaresque genre as seen in two important contemporary Latin American novels, Cortazar's Libro de Manuel and Skarmeta's Match Ball, and the first picaresque novel, Lazarillo de Tormes. Gordana Yovanovich considers the genre in relation to the concept of play and shows how the traditional picaresque genre has been replaced by a distinctly modern version."--BOOK JACKET.