Tan oscura.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara
• Position: Review

Tan oscura, by Agustin Cadena. Mexico City: Joaquin Mortiz, 1999.

Tan oscura is the story of an obsession. Mexican author Agustin Cadena is fascinated by how sexual passion leads to compulsive, destructive behavior while co-existing with and even nurturing the most sublime human aspirations.

Gregorio Montero and Bodo are desperately in love with the same woman. Montero, a middle-aged artist who inhabits a dark, psychotic world, is obsessed with Julia, his model, to the point of madness. Bodo, a university student who is two years Julia's junior, dissolves into tears at the thought that she might leave him. For Julia, there is no problem. She loves both men and has no intention of abandoning either one.

Terrified that Julia will move in with Montero, Bodo proposes a menage a trois. After some vacillation Julia agrees, but sets the ground rules: The three will live together, but sleep in separate beds, and Bodo will clean Montero's filthy apartment. She, Julia, will be free to choose with whom she has sex, without having to justify her choice or elect evenhandedly.

At first, each of the three feels both resentful and apprehensive, but little by little they settle into a routine and become a kind of family. When they have lived together for three months, Montero decides they should all go to the Church of La Soledad to pray to the Virgin to bless their union. Julia finds his faith incomprehensible. How can he consider himself a Catholic, she wants to know, yet accept such an unconventional life-style? But Montero feels his love for Julia to be absolutely pure. It is precisely because life is so complex and the call of the flesh so strong, he believes, that people need God. In the everyday world, he adopts a cynical attitude that serves as armor to protect him from life's hurts, but inside, he yearns for spiritual peace. And yet, in church, instead of calm, he feels troubled and guilty.

The relationship changes all three characters, making them more, not less, obsessive. Bodo begins to imitate Montero's tough-guy persona. When Julia had met him, he was a timid, trusting young man, but his relationship with Montero gradually hardens him, at least on the outside. Julia is drawn toward Montero's spirituality, which Montero himself finds embarrassing. The two men grow increasingly confrontational--each one seeking a defense against his own sense of vulnerability. Sex becomes more central to their existence. All three characters are angst ridden and...