A little victory

Maybe it's not all that static out there.

Slowly, surely, word is getting out about the utter, unredeemed, unalloyed, vileness of castro and all he's done to Cuba. It's like the cracking of permafrost. We've already seen it in television - both CNN and Fox have painted castro the way he should be painted in the past week, and there was that better-than-expected PBS special on the island dictator, too. And of course, The Miami Herald took notice of Val himself on its front page, who is a very hot trend!

On the book front, things seem to be happening, too. A realistic novel about Cuban immigrants in Florida got reviewed instead of ignored in Sunday's Miami Herald.

I wrote earlier about a Cuba-focused publishing house I discovered by chance, called Pureplay Press. It turns out they've just gotten a rave review for one of their novels translated into English. In other words, Cuba the way its story should be told is being shut out no more! I think it's another little victory for real Cubans.

The writer of the book works on the copy desk of the Nuevo Herald but knowing the newspaper world, I wouldn't say that counts for much. Copy desk is not a power player in that crowd, and they could have ignored this and not lost a wink of sleep at night. But they didn't. They gave the book a review, and I think it is getting notice based on merit now that the media is waking up.

Called "A Bridge in Darkness," by Carlos Victoria, it takes a fascinating look at a family mystery a Marielito refugee must solve, and the review makes me want to get ahold of it, too. The Herald writes:

A BRIDGE IN DARKNESS.

Carlos Victoria. Translated from the Spanish by David Landau. Pureplay. 180 pages. $22.

Maintaining any close relationship with Cuba is tricky. From a distance, through generations, the memories fade, and perhaps the wounds lessen. But for those who came of age on its soil and were later displaced, a dual identity is irreconcilable, and home is always far away.

And so, when exiled Natan Velazquez's dying father writes from Cuba to tell him he has a half-brother in Miami, Natan is elated with the prospect of connecting with someone who shares his family history. But his brother, José, for whom he searches in the darkest corners of Miami, does not want to be found.

This cunning, lyrical novel by Carlos Victoria takes the reader on a fascinating and dark journey through the psyche of an exile's mind, one riddled with loneliness and longing and struggling to set down roots in what is still a foreign land.

Victoria, a copy editor at El Nuevo Herald and author of La travesía secreta and La ruta del mago as well as several short story collections, wrote the novel 10 years ago in Spanish and won the prestigious Letras de Oro prize. This version is the first English translation of a work by Victoria, one of the most well-known Cuban writers to have left through the Port of Mariel in 1980.

Natan, a single middle-aged man living in Miami Lakes, takes a vacation from his day job at an export company to find his brother. He begins by contacting José's aunt, a kooky old woman who puts him in touch with José's ex-girlfriends, a seamstress and a hair salon owner, intriguing characters in their own right.

The message from all of them is the same: José is a free spirit, and they have not heard from him in years. Refusing to accept that his brother may be impossible to locate, Natan grows more and more disturbed by his search, swearing that he sees José lurking on the far side of a lake outside his building and later among a pack of drug dealers.

You can read the rest here.

Posted by Mora at February 6, 2005 10:44 AM

Comments

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