Author: Abilio Estévez
- Fiction
- Tusquets Editores
- ISBN: 9788483834046
- Release Date: 12-27-2012
-Reviewed by: Eduardo de Lamadrid
Voluptuousness, transgressive words, narrated sensuality, eroticism and pure sexuality: these are the forms of expression used by Abilio Estevez in El año del calipso to describe corporal intimacy and the energy of the conscience. Obscene diction is one response to the interdictions and lies and moral deceptions of every time and society. With these expressive attributes, Estevez uses the simple narration of a few events to underscore his capacity for invention.
The story is set in 1950s Havana in the neighborhood of Marianao. One hot afternoon, as the radio plays a calypso, a fifteen year old boy goes to the backyard to catch a bit of breeze. There under the trees and spread out against the grass, the youngster fantasizes about movie scenes when suddenly, in the yard next door, a gardener breaks out in song. The boy watches him as he arranges plants, sharpens his machete, and disappears into the garden shack to avoid the oncoming thunderstorm. The apparition of the gardener awakens in the boy a series of heretofore unknown sensations, which in turn unleash desires for new experiences. Now nothing will be as it was before. From the erotic novels which the boy discovers hidden in his own house to the less than innocent encounters he espies here and there, sometimes in the full light of day, or in the voluptuous attitude of various neighborhood and family characters, everything will lead him to the pleasurable discovery of sex.
At the youngster's initiation, while he takes full conscience of his own body, he also learns that eroticism is like a battle full of stratagems and skirmishes, a struggle without victor and vanquished, but for which one must be prepared. His experiences will not only open his eyes to reality, but will also shatter some myths and mark the inevitable end of his childhood in that year, for him unforgettable, when everyone is vibrating to the strains of calypso.
Seasoned with all types of furtive scenes and encounters, what nonetheless prevails are reflections on homosexual behavior. It is not surprising, then, that on many occasions the adolescent Josán, who narrates his private history and the gradual discovery of sex, asks himself philosophical questions and is capable, besides, of imbuing them with moral, but not moralizing, reflections.
The intention, then, is to position the narration in a paradisiacal past, in a sort of return to childhood that may explain the emotional complexities of the adult character remembering all his cares. Estevez manages to convey the warmth of a bygone era where happiness goes hand in hand with the discovery of Josan's own body and of other bodies. But the revelation of sex is always accompanied in this novel by a territory to be conquered, a war to overcome, and a game to be won.
Knowing that "in sex, and even in love, the enchantment of the other proceeds from his dangerousness: attraction arises from the threatening", Estevez reminds us in El año del calipso that there is no innocent fiction.
The novel is skillfully written and is certainly titillating, but as predominantly gay erotic literature, one wonders to what extent it will be able to reach a wider audience, although Reinaldo Arenas did do exactly that with Before Night Falls, his stunning autobiography which also includes unrestrained accounts of homosexual behavior.
