The Assault: A Novel [Paperback]

Reinaldo Arenas (Author), Andrew Hurley (Translator), Thomas Colchie (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

In this, the final volume in the series of five novels that constitute his "secret history of Cuba", Reinaldo Arenas paints a harrowing, and at times boldly entertaining, Kafka-esque picture of a dehumanized people living in a world where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death and a cockroach hunt makes for a national holiday. Narrated by a hate-filled government torturer who has become an agent for the "Bureau of Counterwhispering"," The Assault follows his travels through a blackly humorous shadowland as he winnow out whisperers, sexual deviants, and dissidents of every sort--until memory has been banished and spoken language has been nearly forgotten.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arenas's latest novel follows a Cuban federal agent whose hatred of Castro's government reflects the state of affairs in the author's homeland.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is the final volume of what the author called his agony in five parts, or pentagony, which begins with Singing in the Well (LJ 7/87). Boatlifted from Cuba in 1980, Arenas settled in New York, where he felt frustrated by America's diehard Castro supporters, contracted AIDS, and committed suicide. Here he takes deadly aim at Cuba's glorious "represident," in whose service the narrator rounds up dissidents and deviants to be juiced for patriotic irrigation. People are nameless insects who aspire to "disacquaintance" with their neighbors. The narrator is obsessed by his mother, whom he must annihilate before he assumes her shape, and in the climactic scene he nukes her in a smoky blast of shrapnel and unspeakable substances. Not for traditional readers, this book will delight fans of 1984, Kafka, and magic realism as well as Castro countdowners.
--Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140157182
• ISBN-13: 978-0140157185
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,647,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If "Before Night Falls" caught you....., February 5, 2001

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Assault: A Novel (Paperback)

Hopefully the successful audience response to the film of Arenas' "Before Night Falls" will encourage readers to explore the unique and vastly enriching glimpses of Castro's (or any dictator's for that matter) Cuba. The author's style is indelibly his own, reporting and commenting on the conditions of political supression, whether he elects to satirize in the first person/s as in "Color of Summer" with its over the edge surreal view of contemporary Cuba, or placing the narrator from within as in "The Assault". Truth, as he viewed it, is so ludicrous that it becomes black comedy, not unlike Goya's "Goyescas". But for all the unsettling details of this tale of destruction of all that matters in our past, this book, once read burns a spot in our minds that makes it almost necessary to revisit it lest we forget the joy of freedom. Tough reading, but highly recommended.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Painful and creative, May 13, 2007

By 

Baroque Loverboy "Emperor Oberon" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Assault: A Novel (Paperback)

Tells the tale of the terror of totalitarianism. People are as animals. Life is a joyless, horror. Life is dark, miserable, and full of pain. Despite the completely terrible nature of the story it is extremely creative and a good read. Read in just one day. Marvelous.