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 show more 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. show less

Nov 25, 2017

viking2917 238 reviews

Death in Veracruz: A Novel by Héctor Aguilar Camín

As part of my continuing test of Scribd’s subscription ebooks service, I stumbled on Héctor Aguilar Camín’s Death in Veracruz. Set in the ‘60s and ‘70s during the ascent of Mexico’s oil industry, A Death in Veracruz is a classic of Latin literature, only recently translated ably into English by Chandler Thompson.

Death in Veracruz

Amongst the conflict, graft, corruption and collusion between PEMEX (Mexico’s corrupt government-owned oil company) and the powerful Oil Workers labor show more union, our narrator (simply called by his nickname, Negro) is an investigative journalist specializing in sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. His lifelong friend Rojano is an aspiring politician and landowner, married to the stunning and willful Anabela. Negro has been in love with Anabela since his youth, but lost out to Rojano. But he remains in their orbit, as Rojano and Anabel slowly draw him into their schemes to rise in power.

Rojano’s enemy (and simultaneous political sponsor and mentor) is Lazaro Pizarro, a charismatic and ruthless leader in the Oil Worker’s union. Pizarro is rendered by turns philosophical, ruthless, cruel and yet clinically unemotional when ordering deaths. Each of the main characters is wholly believable and mesmerizing, but Pizarro stands center to me. As the leader of the oil workers union, he is trying to build the worker’s paradise in Mexico and will let nothing stand in his way. At the prompting of Rojano, Negro interviews Pizarro, and more or less accuses him of murdering people to advance his cause. Pizzaro’s response:

“Try to understand,” he said in a voice that was barely audible. “Listen to what I’m telling you. People there are dying at the rate of two a day just from drinking mezcal. Have you ever been in one of those jails? I was in the one in Chicontepec last week. One of the inmates had killed his mother. Another a friend he was out drinking with. Another raped his daughter and almost beat her to death. None of them remembered what they’d done. All that death and suffering was pointless. It bore no fruit. Nothing blossomed or contributed to the wellbeing of others. These are the deaths that must be stopped, the barren ones driven by mezcal and ignorance. There are always going to be violent deaths, that’s the law of history. It’s up to us to make sure they’re fertile and creative, that’s all.”

Death in Veracruz is a dark, classic noir, where nobody is who they seem, double crosses are common, and nobody can be entirely trusted. It’s also a love story, an exploration of Mexico’s culture in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and a hell of wild ride. You’re never sure whether you are being told the truth by the author or the characters, or precisely sure what’s actually happened, kind of a Mexican True Detective.

It’s an entirely atmospheric novel; since books and music often go together well, I made a playlist for you as you read:

Death in Veracruz Playlist on Spotify show less

Dec 23, 2015

Natt90 14,952 reviews

Historias conversadas by Héctor Aguilar Camín

¿Qué hacen dos amigos varados en la sala de espera de un aeropuerto durante un brumoso y ebrio amanecer? ¿Qué hace la viuda sutil de un célebre historiador cuando sabe que en la casa del nuevo vecino se apareció un fantasma? ¿Qué hace el general de amarga fama cuando el periodista gana su confianza? ¿Qué hace el cantante viejo cuando dos testigos de sus días de gloria van a oírlo al decrépito bar donde trabaja? ¿Qué hacen las dueñas de la memoria familiar cuando llega la show more sobremesa de los sábados? La respuesta es invariable: cuentan una historia. show less

Jul 25, 2022Spanish

Daniel464 1,278 reviews

La guerra de Galio by Héctor Aguilar Camín

Viaje a través de la noche, cruce de la historia colectiva y las íntimas catástrofes, retrato de la generación que comenzó su vida adulta en 1968, vivió la guerrilla de la década siguiente y mientras tanto llevó a cabo en México la formación de una vida intelectual y una prensa modernas, La guerra de Galio narra la vida del historiador y periodista Carlos García Vigil y de varios personajes que la atraviesan: el efervescente Octavio Sala, director del diario La República; Paloma show more Samperio y los hermanos Carlos y Santiago Santoyo, habitantes de la "guerra secreta" en el México de los setentas; el nítido profesor de historia que reconstruye la vida de su alumno y la vehemente Mercedes Biedma, marca conmovedora de Vigil. show less

Aug 24, 2021Spanish

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