A review by senqin
Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique

5.0

But if God is love, he tried to reassure himself, then He understands.

★★★★★

I started this book before going to bed, stayed up all through the night finishing it, and then attempted to write this review through the tears. There are no words adequate enough to express the emotional state I've been left in - “hollowed out,” “devastated,” “lost” don’t really encapsulate it and all sound a bit too…dramatic? Regardless, this is one of the most profound and downright depressing stories I’ve ever read. There is so much brutality and bleakness, but also so many moments of beauty. The characterization in particular here is also just phenomenal. There is no black and white morality, no saints and demons, just humans with all their capacity for good and evil.

As expected from the synopsis, Like This Afternoon Forever does grapple significantly with the concept of religion (specifically Catholicism) among MANY other things like poverty, homosexuality, and the Colombian civil war. However, you really don’t have to be familiar with it to appreciate the story. I have never been a religious person, but still found the themes depicted, the struggles encountered, and the questions raised to be "universal" and incredibly thought provoking.

In the acknowledgement, the author confides that he started, and struggled with, writing this story after the death of his longtime partner. When I saw that statement, all of a sudden I understood the palpable sense of overwhelming grief that seems to permeate the entirety of the book. It absolutely baffles me why Jaime Manrique isn’t swimming in awards and accolades and that this was really just a random borrow from the library for me. I can’t even wholeheartedly recommend Like This Afternoon Forever because it is once again an extremely difficult read, but it’s definitely one that needs to be experienced if you are able to. It will stay with you forever.

Just…wow.

— ♩♫♩ ~ A Pile of Dust