Day In, Day Out

First there was Helen of Troy whose face launched a thousand ships and then there was Liliana, who it seems almost no man could resist least of all Serrano whose obsession with her over a thirty year love affair is a journey into a world of madness. It is a story of his being bewitched by her, by the scent of her, by the life in her, by her excesses. But this obsession is a dance between them as Serrano keeps his distance, making lives with others, but keeps returning to drown himself in her madness and eventually finding out who Liliana is when the craziness departs and the passion is gone. But, as Liliana tells him, the train only comes by once in a lifetime.

There is a crime element here as Serrano seeks to understand the truth about a killing he was told about, who ordered it, and whatnot, leading him to a maze of corruption and mystery about the truth and what matters about truth and fantasy.

This book is not written in a traditional expository fashion and it’s more about what Serrano sees and feels and experiences than a more traditional story.

The translation from the original Spanish is well done and imparts to the reader a sense and a rhythm of Mexico. It also imparts the poetry in Camin’s descriptions that bring to life the scents, the sounds, the passion that Serrano experiences. Old clever El Pato waddles like a duck but is otherwise a cat or a crocodile. Liliana is described as the goddess of moisture. “She smells of freshly cut firewood, of the detergent she uses to wash her underwear, and the perfumed sweetness of a strip joint.” And her “breath is laced with the sweet scent of her burnt orange lipstick and a whiff of the tequila she’s drinking, or drank last night.” You can feel Serrano getting lost in Liliana. But then, she seems to trigger that effect in all men.

It is a journey into the madness of passion, of drunken excess, of fantasies. But some may find it a bit too non-traditional.

This entertaining novel provides suspense galore as the reader is whisked away to a Mexico of times past, when crime and corruption come together in a blur of mania!

First of all, the translation from Spanish to English is VERY well done!

Beginning this book, you'd think you're about to read about a friendship turned rivalry between two people Serrano and El Pato when they meet at a funeral. Then as it progresses, you're inclined to think you'll hear about a lost love. But what you get with this masterpieces is a concoction of love, sex, corruption, schemes and the question of sanity that goes beyond the excessive drinking and drug use by the main characters.

Liliana Montoya is the girl of every man's dreams. She brings men, across generations, to their knees. "She reduces them to their primal state and turns them into violent and primitive-but passionate-lovers." She's the main arc of this story with her sexual appetite, her desire to be desired and her erratic behaviour and lifestyle that Serrano can't help but want to be a part of. But he finds himself afraid of how "crazy" she can possibly be when she reveals to him that she ordered one of her lover's to murder a man. As Serrano goes through the highlights of his life in pursuit of Liliana, we - as he does - finds pieces of a bigger picture that never truly comes together.

This book highlights, without demonizing, the power of a woman's sexuality and how it is never all there is to a woman. She is layered, complex, emotive and calculating without being callous. It also portrays a man's perception of women when they are and aren't theirs, how her attractiveness is sometimes overshadowed when she isn't how they want them.

The writing of the book is very matter-of-fact as the narrator only includes details he sees as necessary without circumlocutions. He portrays various sceneries perfectly without needing to describe every encounter or location excessively. Somewhere along the way mental health is laced into the story - which is befitting giving the lifestyle of Liliana and her state of mind becomes a point to ponder when he realizes that who she is is usually depends on what drug she's on.

The story is risque in every sense of the word with an inspection on what morality really is when it comes second to desire.

If you like non-traditional books, start with this one!

Serrano's obsession with his best-friend's sister, Liliana, began in a bathroom triste, when they were teenagers. Liliana's enigmatic beauty haunts and trails Serrano for the next thirty years. Every time, he tries to flee her memory, she somehow returns and when she involves him, in a murder and a conspiracy, he is entangled for good.
With echoes of Chandler and Cain, this superb, hard-boiled story, is both spare and hypnotizing. This is only the second translated work by Camin and it is translated very effectively. I plan on reading more of this talented Mexican author's work.

**I was offered a copy of this from NetGalley. A good fit.