April 22, 2013: “Mexican Manifesto” by Roberto Bolaño
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this story, which is available to read online.
A couple visits Mexico City bathhouses, handy places for midday trysts. They are able to use rooms that are half steam room, half bedroom. Frequently they are joined in these rooms by others, for various reasons, but the story dwells mostly on a visit by an old man and two boys who perform for the couple. The story includes some beautiful images, and the description of a mural of Montezuma in a swimming pool is striking, but it otherwise doesn’t appeal to me at all.
It didn’t do it for me either.