DEEP PURPLE

Music is the ultimate aphrodisiac in this aggressively sexy sixth novel from the Cuban-born author.

The subject is retired newspaper music critic Agustin Caban’s piecemeal memoir of his erotic encounters with eminent—and, it seems, perpetually ardent—classical performers (“ . . . the musical climax makes them want the other climax: they are burning up inside”). Caban’s revelations, coaxed out of him by his salivating former editor, introduce such willing and various crazed partners as a sexually repressed mulatto violinist, a bisexual male Australian pianist, and a French horn virtuosa who’s also an expert fellatrix. These very entertaining vignettes also cohere into a subtle, striking character study of a music lover who’s simultaneously observer, celebrant, and exploiter of the art and artists he helplessly adores. The best yet from Montero (The Red of His Shadow, 2001, etc.).