Like This Afternoon Forever

April 1, 2019
Two friends take divergent paths through the priesthood in war-torn Colombia, keeping their homosexuality under wraps. Manrique's sixth novel (Cervantes Street, 2012, etc.) is set against the drug-fueled violence that's afflicted the author's native Colombia for decades--families "hacked to pieces" by soldiers, severed heads displayed as threats by bandoleros. The church is one of the few escape hatches out of poverty and bloodshed, so two young men, Lucas and Ignacio, are nudged into the priesthood. They meet in high school in the early 1990s, and though they have different temperaments--Lucas is gregarious and earnest, Ignacio moody and headstrong--they quickly develop a romantic affection for each other that's complicated by both church doctrine and their different backgrounds. ("[Ignacio] was an Indian and Lucas was a white-looking mestizo," a particular pressure point for Ignacio.) The two wind up at the same seminary, they launch a relationship, keeping their affair hidden for the next decade and a half while they lead separate parishes in Bogota. (Ignacio's is a particularly challenging assignment, filled with refugees from drug violence.) Stress, shame, questioning God, and a descent into drugs and reckless sex ensue, which Manrique depicts more in a spirit of lament than moral judgment--the noble urge to do God's work warps under the pressure to remain chaste and quiet our affections. Still, the story's arc leans toward melodrama, evoking a bygone era of gay romance where a lover was all but obligated to die for perceived sins. That's tempered somewhat by Manrique's thoughtful use of the theological backdrop following Ignacio's mournful contemplation of God as a being "drunk on his infinite inventiveness," using men as playthings. A novel that strives to encompass drug violence, faith, and sexuality, though not entirely cohesively.

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May 15, 2019
Lucas and Ignacio, two young men from very different backgrounds, find each other and fall in love while attending seminary in Bogot�. Lucas is a handsome mestizo from a farming family, and Ignacio is Bar� Indian; both suffered traumatic childhoods in strife-ridden Colombia during the violent 1990s. Acclaimed Colombian author Manrique has both characters narrate this intense love story in alternating sections shaped by their unique yet equally compelling points of view. Each man's particular struggles with faith, the church, and the calling to serve play out in the seminary and later in their assigned parishes. Theirs is a torturous journey through the ravages of Colombia's drug wars, in which their flocks are preyed upon by guerrillas, narcos (drug traffickers), and paramilitary forces, while a chain of murders that become known as the false positives add to the horror. Lucas and Ignacio must also navigate the treacherous waters of a fearful community hostile to homosexuals. Manrique's drama of a dangerous love affair in a world of blood, terror, displacement, and desperation grapples with profound and persistent conflicts.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)