Customer Reviews

Adios Muchachos (Spanish Edition)

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I agree with those who say the first half is better than the rather stale ending, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I'm really writing to say that I just finished a great book by Chavarria called Lo que dura, dura, -- a somewhat untranslatable pun on dura "hard" and dura "to last long" -- that I bought in the Negra y Criminal bookstore in Barcelona, though it's a "mystery" only by a stretch: It's about an outbreak of priapism in the Cuban countryside and an attempt to make a Cuban herbal-based Viagra. But it's really a portrait of Cuban society through the lives of four guys who grow up together in a post-revolution neighborhood where professionals live in close contact with "marginals" (two become doctors and two become criminals), and about Cuban attitudes towards penises, homosexualtiy, sex roles, etc. Unfortunately it's not translated -- and I think it would be hard to translate well. (The Spanish (Spain) paperback edition even has a glossary of Cuban slang.) Chavarria is a wonderful writer in Spanish so now I'd like to go back and read Adios Muchachos again in the original.
To respond to a couple of previous reviewers: Chavarria is not at all young, he has a long association with Cuba including teaching literature at the U of Havana, and he has published fiction and non-fiction in several fields, including a novel about ancient Greece.

Just a warning - even though the excerpt is in English - imagine my dismay when the book was delivered to me in Spanish! Upon closer inspection of the description, it does say the language is Spanish, but unfortunately I didn't pay enough attention. I can read Spanish, but it's harder and I was hoping for a quick read.