tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post8163087511408990721..comments2024-01-24T11:41:28.022+00:00Comments on A Cuban In London: Of Literature and Other Abstract ThoughtsA Cuban In Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16423293358605007539noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-4982182634100038032014-09-27T14:13:23.710+01:002014-09-27T14:13:23.710+01:00i like cliche-free books and this one sounds def. ...i like cliche-free books and this one sounds def. like one worth to check outClaudiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03011763027311966186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-37269162949199663272014-09-27T06:43:01.565+01:002014-09-27T06:43:01.565+01:00What a great review - this sounds like a brilliant...What a great review - this sounds like a brilliant trilogy as it has made you think and feel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-44204916990624339632014-09-27T01:16:05.012+01:002014-09-27T01:16:05.012+01:00Great review! It was helpful to hear an insider...Great review! It was helpful to hear an insider's perspective. It's banned books week too.Sarah Laurencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423008641739156182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-66245474184205046472014-09-25T21:23:29.474+01:002014-09-25T21:23:29.474+01:00Thank you all for your kind comments.
I will try ...Thank you all for your kind comments.<br /><br />I will try to respond to your feedback as a group rather than naming you individually. Some of your observations overlap.<br /><br />This year I have read a couple of books I would put in the "original" category. Original as in they defy genre and boundaries. One was Heureux Les Heureux by Yasmina Reza and the other is the one I'm reading now, Master and Margarita. That the latter is a classic from the Stalinist USSR era proves my point somehow. I think many contemporary writers prefer "safe" to "daring". It's hard also when the market leans towards "safe" and shuns" daring". But Hilary Mantal has proved the market wrong. Her latest two novels are difficult but they have been comemrcially successful. That the subject matter of what it is a trilogy (the last part is currently being written apparently) is a historical figure, Thomas Cromwell, who is more commonly associated with Henry VIII than as an influential poltiical personality in his own right makes the two novels irresistible. To me the two Cromwell volumes belong more in the realm of thriller than in the historical fiction one.<br /><br />That's why Pedro succeeds with Dirty Havana Trilogy. Instead of writing about cigars and American cars, he uses these elements as a background and leaves there, in the background. In the foreground he places a myriad characters who are as far away as possible from the commonly held notion of what Cubans are. Some chapters are hard to read, like the one about the ninety-year-old white dainty lady who only had a man in her life, her husband. Apparently he could never satisfy her sexually, Enter a mixed-race 20- or 30-year-old youngster from the provinces and... yes, that happens. But whereas some readers might look away and say "that can't be true", I, as a Cuban, read that passage and read it as a hyperbole of a situation that did take place and still takes place. People who are born and live outside Havana try to get a place in the Cuban capital by any means possible. In that sense, as someone commented last night, the Havana from the 90s onwards doesn't differ from 50s Havana, except that, as Cuban prostitutes used to tell me, at least the US marines were young and athletic. The plethora of western tourists these "night flowers" sleep with are in their majority old, wrinkled and can't get an erection properly. That's the world described in Dirty Havana Trilogy.<br /><br />Thanks for your comments. I highly recommend this book.<br /><br />Greetings from London.A Cuban In Londonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16423293358605007539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-17423402214343979892014-09-25T16:57:16.379+01:002014-09-25T16:57:16.379+01:00this sounds like a rather fascinating book...and s...this sounds like a rather fascinating book...and something that i could really get into...i will look it up....Brian Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00722940075884718007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-90350463496756289102014-09-25T14:21:43.282+01:002014-09-25T14:21:43.282+01:00Yes...such a brilliant review...I am totally impel...Yes...such a brilliant review...I am totally impelled to read this trilogy now!<br />I have to confess...my knowledge of Havana is patchy, at best...so now I am intrigued to learn more...<br />Thank you so much for this introduction.:)<br />Ygrainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00300519608303898969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-39708416102318474252014-09-25T08:14:02.717+01:002014-09-25T08:14:02.717+01:00A friend who guides tours in Cuba advised me not t...A friend who guides tours in Cuba advised me not to read this before I went to Cuba earlier this year - he said it would do nothing to help me understand Cuba today. But maybe now I've been (and failed to get to grips with Cuba's complexity) it would be a great read. Already I know what he means by the smell.JOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03127111575563904349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-89199562210367392752014-09-25T05:49:32.672+01:002014-09-25T05:49:32.672+01:00Sounds really interesting to me --Sounds really interesting to me --Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03313726816776097840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-67686286216723834212014-09-25T04:02:10.798+01:002014-09-25T04:02:10.798+01:00I picture Havana as the city of passion, cigars an...I picture Havana as the city of passion, cigars and palm trees, a city I would like to experience.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02399300464457820101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-36764058309046194572014-09-25T04:00:05.140+01:002014-09-25T04:00:05.140+01:00Thank you for this review, Cubano. I look forward ...Thank you for this review, Cubano. I look forward to reading a cliche-free book based in 90's Cuba. Might be a little painful, but I can take it.Kerryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281288495129054688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-65100383600157767292014-09-25T03:15:41.036+01:002014-09-25T03:15:41.036+01:00Sounds very interesting and a very cool cover, tha...Sounds very interesting and a very cool cover, thanks. K. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-4696798771219530792014-09-25T02:21:56.944+01:002014-09-25T02:21:56.944+01:00Sounds like one that sure made you think, that is ...Sounds like one that sure made you think, that is the best books. But yeah whether it be movies, books, TV, anything and everything "new" can be compared to something that came before. Pat Hatthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07745293224202430152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-19904024534676165282014-09-25T02:15:18.267+01:002014-09-25T02:15:18.267+01:00I think I might go so far as to say there is nothi...I think I might go so far as to say there is nothing new or original left to write (or to be found under the sun, for that matter), only variations of the same primeval emotions and responses to them as seen through the eyes of different people in different places in different times.<br /><br />I looked over a few more reviews of the "Dirty Havana Trilogy" after reading your post, CiL, and noted one person compared Pedro Juan Gutierrez to Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski, while you mention Allen Ginsberg. I think I might be past the stage of life where this sort of literary exploration interests me, but it helps me to understand this author and makes me a bit curious.<br /><br />Actually, from what I have read and been told from a few who were in Havana during the 1950s, the Havana of Gutierrez in the 1990s seems to be a mirror image of pre-Castro days for those on the lower end of the economic spectrum. So much for socialism and communism.<br /><br />So, we shall see. Maybe I will read, maybe I will not, but I am glad you brought this trilogy to my attention, CiL. If I ever re-visit Cuba, I would be certain to read it.Fram Actualhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01540773153894050197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-54449103447087712012014-09-25T01:39:19.521+01:002014-09-25T01:39:19.521+01:00Such a wonderful review, thank you so much for sha...Such a wonderful review, thank you so much for sharing!Lindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12692170857496442623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-61681756246885225882014-09-25T01:03:02.343+01:002014-09-25T01:03:02.343+01:00What a brilliant review. A good book for me is on...What a brilliant review. A good book for me is one that makes me feel and think. And smell is so very evocative, and so rarely used.<br />I might have to explore this series when my unread tower reaches manageable proportions. Thank you.Elephant's Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06650565833097914052noreply@blogger.com