Monstrous—that was how I felt! It is impossible to convey how this sentence spoke to me, how it seemed to capture my own predicament. To this day, I consider it the greatest opening in all of literature. It presents the story’s fundamental premise without preamble or build-up. It is practically a short-story in itself! But again, what kind of story?
The Man in the Rain
Finding no-one in the backyard, the officers asked to search the inside of the house. Eneas followed them as they looked through every room, even the bathroom. On a glass shelf in the bathroom stood the little frosted crystal bottle with the round cap—his father’s lemony cologne. His father called it “Ger-lane” and had often said that no true Cuban man would ever wear any other scent.