From Publishers Weekly
In this evocative first novel by short story writer Menendez (In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd), a young, unnamed Miami woman is granted an intimate look into her provenance with the arrival of a package of old photographs and letters. An infant during the revolution, she was sent from Cuba to be raised by her kind but unforthcoming grandfather; her mother, Teresa, seems to have vanished. But this package of writings "smell[ing] of dark drawers and musty rooms" reveals Teresa de la Landre's life, from her carefree girlhood to her marriage, artistic career and impassioned affair with revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Teresa's poetic memories, which make up the bulk of the book, are rich in sensual detail ("Ernesto... his touch like wading into a small pool only to find it deep and cool and sweet beneath the reflection") and full of the terror and exhilaration of revolution ("After the triumph... it was the strange and dreadful excitement of a world turning, of everything staid and ordinary being swept away"). Despite the tension in the narrator's search to learn her mother's fate and the true identity of her father-was it Che, or Teresa's professor husband, Calixto?-the present-day story, which bookends the letters, is less developed. The dreamy portrait of tropical Havana in gorgeous decay ("Where the cement had cracked, small purple flowers blossomed, as if every house held a garden prisoner within its walls") lingers, while the narrator's hopeful but pragmatic thoughts during her quest can fall somewhat flat. Still, the glimpses of vibrant 1950s Cuba and Teresa and Che's perfectly rendered relationship make this a moving novel from a writer to watch.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Menendez, author of the superb short story collection
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd (2001), once again brings the Cuban experience to life in her first novel. A woman goes to Cuba in search of information about her lost mother, whom she never knew, but returns empty handed. However, she soon receives a mysterious package full of hastily written letters and pictures of charismatic rebel Che Guevara. What follows is the story of Theresa, an artist from a wealthy background who eventually loses her heart to Che, an unlikely lover. The backdrop to their romance is Cuba during the Revolution--burning cars, coups, dwindling resources. Che visits Theresa often, and together they face a world of harsh realities. As the narrator realizes that Theresa is her mother and Che is her father, Cuba is born anew in her eyes, for a man she was brought up to revile is suddenly revealed to be her father. She returns to Cuba with renewed zeal, and its legends become the story of her life.
Michael SpinellaCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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