Fifty Years On

Thoroughly enjoyed Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban: A Novel (1992, 1993). Memorable characters, magical realism, with historical backdrop covering a good chunk of the twentieth century. Cuban culture and society seen through the disparate eyes of one extended family, some in voluntary exile and some remaining in Cuba.


A helpful family chart is included to keep everyone easily sorted out. The male characters are mostly wraith-like. The strongest characters are four women: Celia (first generation), Lourdes and Felicia (second generation) and Pilar (third generation). In their various ways, they are also the most likable, or at least the most understandable. Given that Pilar is closest in age to me and has some of the same interests (including Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, the Ramones, art and visiting Cuba), she comes off to me as the most sympatico. She seems also to stand in for the author, at least loosely. Highly recommended, one of my favorite contemporary novels since reading Leila Aboulela's Minaret (2005). Now I'd like to read Garcia's A Handbook to Luck (2007), intertwining stories of exiles from El Salvador, Cuba and Iran.


Cuban cigar wrapper. From Windsor?




The first Sputnik was launched in 1957, but close enough to 1959 to add here. Sputnik launches continued into the 1960s. And Castro still abides in Cuba.

Today's Rune: The Self.

Minaret

Ray Carver's "Cathedral" is often assigned in college English classes. At this juncture, I highly recommend Leila Aboulela's beautiful 2005 novel Minaret be added to the list. A minaret, for one thing, is Islam's equivalent to the spires of a Christian cathedral, and this work explores -- from a woman's perspective -- a slice of Muslim life in London. Minaret is ideal for book clubs, reading circles, summer reading, and extra credit student reading from teenager on up. If it was a movie, it would be rated PG.


What is behind the veil? Minaret provides compelling glimpses. Najwa (the narrator) is a woman working as a servant in London. Her family has fallen down in the world -- her father had been a high-ranking government official in Sudan until toppled by a coup d' état. With father gone, her mother sick, ne'er-do-well brother in prison, how will Najwa survive? As a sheltered Sudanese college student, she had enjoyed American culture and had a lot of carefree fun; once exiled and with little support, she turns to a more spiritual life infused with Islam. I love this novel!


Today's Rune: Defense.