After Havana: A Novel [Hardcover]

Charles Fleming (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2004

An epic and explosive novel of Cuba in 1958, After Havana is the story the nightclubs, revolutionaries, and Security forces in the sour twilight of the Batista empire. Sloan is a white American horn player with a bruised past and a wounded heart. Anita is the mixed-race beauty who will recapture his love and spark a manhunt through the streets of the city and into the heart of the rebel-held Sierre Maestra mountains. Carlos Delgado is the famed rebel Communist leader, having secretely returned to his homeland from exile in Mexico. And Cardoso is the haunted Security agent assigned to find and kill Delgado, thereby shifting the power back to the corrupt Batista government. Cardoso is author Charles Fleming's greatest creation yet, a man corrupted by circumstance and duty yet willing to sacrifice it all for redemption.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Cuba during the final months of the Batista regime, Fleming's densely populated second novel is packed with color, violence and history, but the action is sporadic and the narrative meanders. In 2002's The Ivory Coast, a white jazz musician named Deacon ran into some trouble in Las Vegas; now, three years later, he's going by the name of Peter Sloan, working at the Tropicana Hotel in Havana and mooning after his lost love, the beautiful Anita. Coincidentally, Anita is visiting Havana with her current paramour, real estate magnate Nick Calloway. Other characters from The Ivory Coast, including Sloan's benefactor, casino owner Mo Weiner, an associate of mobster Meyer Lansky, mingle with numerous new characters, among them conflicted Luis Cardoso, a Cuban security agent repelled by his government's cruelty; enigmatic Scarfioti, an American government informer; and many revolutionaries, including saintly Carlos "El Gato" Delgado, an associate of Castro, and Nilsa, a female freedom fighter. When Anita is kidnapped by the revolutionaries, Sloan, Calloway and Cardoso set out for the Sierra Maestra with the ransom. A climactic airport gunfight seals the fates of the entire cast. Double crosses and misunderstandings drive this many-layered novel, which is an ambitious near miss. Fleming's evocation of sultry Havana, insight into Cuban politics and society, and exhilarating action scenes are overwhelmed by all the characters who muse and reminisce too readily. As Delgado notes, a "certain amount of self-reflection was a fine thing.... Too much reflection made for poor revolutionaries." It makes for uneven novels, too.
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From Booklist

Deacon, the Chet Baker-like trumpet player who starred in Fleming's debut novel, The Ivory Coast (2002), is back, hiding out in Havana after the Vegas fiasco that ended the earlier novel. His new name, Peter Sloan, may have given him a measure of anonymity, but it hasn't helped a bit with the burden of his past, especially the loss of his great love, Anita--who kick-starts the action here when she walks into the one gin joint in all the world where Sloan happens to be blowing his trumpet. From there, Fleming takes us on a furious tour of 1958 Havana--bars, gangsters, movie stars, and revolutionaries--leading up to a climax in the Sierra Maestre, in which apolitical Sloan must barter with one of Castro's lieutenants for Anita's life. Turn to Jose Latour's Havana World Series [BKL N 15 03] if you want a more-textured, less-superficial look at 1950s Cuba, but Fleming's version, a kind of TV-movie take on the topic, makes diverting beach reading for those who can't resist the allure of guayaberra shirts and cafe con leche. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (January 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312307489
• ISBN-13: 978-0312307486
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,263,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting historical thriller, January 7, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Havana: A Novel (Hardcover)

In 1958 American expatriate Pete Deacon hides in Cuba from powerful mobsters and business moguls though he sees no difference between the two groups wanting to harm him. Pete loves to play the trumpet and misses his beloved Anita, lost as a byproduct of the IVORY COAST fiasco. His foes want a piece of his butt and own Anita but Pete knows there is nothing he can do except hide his body in Cuba and his mind with alcohol.

To further disguise himself, Pete, who has been in Havana for three years, uses the name Sloan and plays a substitute at best trumpet, a coronet, as part of a jazz band at the Tropicana. However, as is the luck of Pete by any name, Anita escorted by tycoon Nick Calloway enters the Tropicana. Surprisingly, Nick cherishes Anita perhaps as much as Pete treasures her. When the rebels abduct Anita, a weird assortment of allies try to rescue her. However the hills are alive with the sound of treachery, hidden agendas, and double dealing led by American Fed Cardoso as an assassination plot to keep Batista in power unfolds.

This is an exciting historical thriller that brings to life Cuba just prior to the Castro revolution. The story line is exciting, but it is the host of characters kept focused by Pete that makes the era seem so vividly alive. Fans will appreciate this amoral tale in which the results mean everything so double dealing is acceptable by almost every participant, which makes the ethical Pete seem sadly naive. Charles Fleming will have a difficult time keeping the quality as high AFTER HAVANA and the IVORY COAST.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Next Stage in Fleming's Amazing World, January 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: After Havana: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you liked Ivory Coast, After Havana is essential reading. Fleming's rich, textured narrative takes us from the emerging world of Vegas to the imploding hell of Cuba in 1958. The story moves at a relentless pace, taking us to bars in Havana, rebel mountain strongholds, and the minds of several desperate, all too human characters. Fleming's second novel confirms that he has the talent and imagination to enrich our lives for years to come.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sexy, thrilling way to learn a little history., March 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: After Havana: A Novel (Hardcover)

This talented writer weaves a suspenseful thriller set in 1958 Cuba at the brink of the Castro revolution. Charles Fleming tells a passionate story of separated lovers first introduced in IVORY COAST. Anita and Sloan strive to reunite against a background of vivid police atrocities, sleazy Havana bars, political rebellion, lavish casinos and an array of extraordinarily sordid characters. Replete with excitement, history, mystery and romance, this novel is a gift for those seeking the thrill of crime fiction.