Cualquier miercoles soy tuya / Any Wednesday Im Yours (Narrativa (Punto de Lectura)) (Spanish Edition)

Julián Castrodad is a journalist and aspiring writer who suddenly finds himself unemployed. His friend, Tadeo, offers him a job at a shady hotel, which Julián's girlfriend finds beneath their middle-class status. Reluctant at first, Julián becomes a hotel employee. Later, he will discover that the hotel is a gold mine for his writing, as various characters from all walks of life-a lonely rich woman, lovers, prostitutes, politicians, drug dealers-will provide him with myriad stories that allow him to complete his first work. Furthermore, the writings of "M," a regular customer of the hotel, are collected by Julián, who, like a voyeur, reads them avidly to find out about the life of mysterious "M," and also to learn how to write. Of special interest is a chapter titled "Oró Moyugba," which details the ceremony of a tambor, where Caribbean gods inherited from the yorubá pantheon in Africa are called upon in a kind of séance and expose a connection between drug traffickers and santería. The novel is divided into 26 short chapters with quaint titles-e.g., "Wednesday, a.m.." "Breakfast for Daphne." "Alpha Male," and "The Coin"-that show the popular tone and agile writing present throughout the novel. Puerto Rican Santos-Febres, whose novels, short stories, poetry, , and essays have been frequently translated, offers a very entertaining read with colorful characters, a political plot, and deftly detailed violence. Recommended for academic and public libraries.—Liliana Wendorff, Queens Univ. of Charlotte, NC