Mayra Santos-Febres

Sirena Selena by Mayra Santos-Febres is about an ambitious Puerto Rican drag queen named Martha Divine and her young protege, Sirena Selena. They head to the Dominican Republic hoping to capitalize on Sirena’s captivating voice by performing boleros live when she captures the fascination of a local, wealthy businessman.

Written more than 17 years ago, this book predates progressive gender movements like Latinx, #Ownvoices and the popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race – which could explain show more some of the rather unforgiving reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.

I picked this book up in June to read as part of Pride Month. And, I’m glad I took a chance on this little sleeper-gem of a book. There’s a lot to unpack with less than 230 pages: multiple, shifting POVs; transcendence of performance art; erotic encounters; and sucker-punch moments of love and cruelty. Apparently, I do not know how to do light summer reading.

But, guys, just look at this stuff:

“She was a diva from beyond, honoring us with her luminous presence, a goddess who had descended from Mount Olympus to mingle in the dark with us mortals in the hidden bars of gay San Juan.”

Upon seeing Sirena descend from a spiral staircase during a performance, the audience nearly loses their damn minds:

"The calla lilies wither and, nearly dead, they faint before Selena’s hungry chest. Her moon approaches the balcony, full. The apocalypse is about to occur. Sirena, standing still in the center of the staircase, sings…"

To be clear, this ain’t your mama’s "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" kind of story for mass consumption. And, I also don’t think this is meant to be read as some kind of comprehensive codex of the queer experience in the Caribbean. But, it’s a story and one about the roles we all play (whether forced on us, coerced, imagined or self-imposed) in order to get what we want. show less

Este libro nos comparte 14 excelentes relatos del San Juan oscuro, a veces tétrico y lúgubre. Cada historia corta es además de interesante, cruda y llena de realidad. Y cuando digo realidad, me refiero a esa que a veces queremos cubrir para que otros no puedan ver. Sobre todo, esta obra que representa un compendio en el que cada historia es escrita por un autor diferente, está llena de humanidad. Es un espejo que retrata esa humanidad en sus puntos más bajos, y nos devela a personajes show more que son objetos, víctimas o perpetradores de grandes males sociales como la prostitución y la drogadicción. A ellos, en pocas páginas, nos obliga a mirarlos y verlos como seres humanos y no como meras sombras. Altamente recomendado. show less

Este libro nos comparte 14 excelentes relatos del San Juan oscuro, a veces tétrico y lúgubre. Cada historia corta es además de interesante, cruda y llena de realidad. Y cuando digo realidad, me refiero a esa que a veces queremos cubrir para que otros no puedan ver. Sobre todo, esta obra que representa un compendio en el que cada historia es escrita por un autor diferente, está llena de humanidad. Es un espejo que retrata esa humanidad en sus puntos más bajos, y nos devela a personajes show more que son objetos, víctimas o perpetradores de grandes males sociales como la prostitución y la drogadicción. A ellos, en pocas páginas, nos obliga a mirarlos y verlos como seres humanos y no como meras sombras. Altamente recomendado. show less

I have been a fan of the Akashic Noir series for years and my two rows of my bookshelves groan under their weight. They combine two of my great reading passions, armchair travel and the grim, often mordant, world of noir fiction. It is fascinating, too, to discover how the many different authors interpret noir for their city or their country. In San Juan Noir, the editor Mayra Santos-Febres’ own fascination with the erotic, with gender fluidity and human sexuality played a heavy role in show more her story selection.

But don’t let that give you the idea there is no variety. The first story begins in the rarefied air of high-rise living with a main character who seldom leaves her apartment or her building, ordering in anything she wants. Other stories feature the poorest of the poor, scrounging what they can on the edges of society. There are tourists, hotel clerks, pimps, prostitutes, fishermen, hitmen, journalists, teachers, and panty-snatchers. All kinds of people are represented and all layers of society.

There is little of the whodunnit in these stories. In fact, they do not resemble anything like traditional mysteries. These are stories drenched in the moody waters of noir, rich in emotion, passion,love, fear, and despair. They are the stories of life on the edge, sometimes slipping, sometimes sliding, sometimes leaping and sometimes soaring right over the edge.

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I have never been to San Juan, Puerto Rico, but I traveled some of its streets in these stories. Of course, the city is more than noir. That’s what I love about the Akashic Noir stories, these are not the Tourist Bureau stories of the city. They are gritty, sometimes nasty, sometimes gross, but always interesting.

San Juan Noir is certainly the most frankly sexual of all the Noir editions I have read. There are some scenes that are very graphic, very erotic. This is not a book to gift your Aunt Irene. But then, you’re going to want to keep it for yourself anyway.

For the first time, Akashic Books released their anthology in both English and Spanish. I read about half the stories in the English edition and the other half in the Spanish edition. Some stories I read in both editions. I have to admit this was more difficult to read in Spanish than anything I have read before, except for some Old Spanish literature when they used “f” for “h” and “x” for “j”. There were idioms that baffled me, so I am so glad to have both versions to read.

San Juan Noir will be released on October 4th. I received an e-galley of both editions from the publisher through Edelweiss.

Several related links with my review:

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/san-juan-noir-by-mayra-sa... show less