From Publishers Weekly
In Latina author Santos-Febres's intriguing noir debut, Julián Castrodad, an aspiring writer who's been fired from his newspaper job, finds "temporary" work as a night clerk at San Juan, Puerto Rico's Motel Tulán, where sex, intrigue and desperation are frequent customers. This night world is unlike anything Castrodad has experienced, from the elderly man with the beautiful boy to the mysterious woman who arrives alone (and stays that way until Castrodad falls under her spell). Castrodad's guide to this universe is clerk Tadeo Chamdeleau, who teaches him the tricks of the trade. The motel's residents have plenty of fervid dreams, which clash with reality, then break and reform in kaleidoscopic fashion. Particularly impressive is the author's description of the "tambor," which Castrodad attends as a guest and where Santeria, the Afro-Caribbean religion, is celebrated in a fashion that stretches the meaning of diversity to new lengths.
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From Booklist
Julian Castrodad is on a long, slow, downward slide that leads him to the seedy Motel Tulan in San Juan, where he works as a desk clerk on the night shift. He has recently been fired from his newspaper job, is on the outs with his girlfriend, and is trying to convince himself that his new job will provide him with the material to kick-start the novel he has been struggling to write for years. As is required in a motel that rents rooms by the hour, he learns to disappear into his surroundings while registering every detail. Among his regular customers are a controversial union organizer, an enigmatic drug dealer, and a secretive, sultry woman called M, who checks in every Wednesday. When one of them ends up murdered, Julian emerges from his exhausted state with a new drive to discover the hidden connections among the motel's regulars. Literature professor Santos-Febres, touted as an emerging author of Latin noir, writes strikingly about lost souls and lost dreams in sensual, evocative prose tinged with desperation.
Joanne WilkinsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
