Dirty Havana Trilogy: A Novel in Stories [Paperback]

Pedro Juan Gutierrez (Author), Natasha Wimmer (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: February 5, 2002

Banned in Cuba but celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world, this picaresque novel in stories chronicles the misadventures of Pedro Juan, a former Cuban journalist living from hand to mouth in the squalor of contemporary Havana, half disgusted and half fascinated by the depths to which he has sunk. Like the lives of so many of his neighbors in the crumbling, once-elegant apartment houses that line Havana's waterfront, Pedro Juan's days and nights have been reduced by the so-called special times -- the harsh recession that followed the Soviet Union's collapse -- to the struggle of surviving the daily grit through the escapist pursuit of sex. Pedro Juan scrapes by under the shadow of hunger -- all the while observing his lovers and friends, strangers on the street, and their suffering with an unsentimental, mocking, yet sympathetic eye.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The streetwise gutsiness of Bukowski and Miller pervades Cuban poet Guti rrez's raunchy, symbolic, semi-autobiographical debut novel of life in 1990s Havana. Although the title suggests a triptych, the work more closely resembles a mosaic of short stories bursting with vivid images of exhilaration, depravity, desire and isolation. Narrator Pedro Juan, middle-aged and fed up, has rejected his career as a journalist because "I always had to write as if stupid people were reading me." Resisting the mass exodus from Cuba of August 1994, Pedro Juan now wanders the streets of Havana like a footloose Bacchus, indulging himself with women, marijuana and rum. He survives through a series of menial jobs. His rooftop apartment in central Havana has a spectacular Caribbean view but is, like all dwellings in the decaying economy, frequently without water. Pedro Juan is imprisoned more than once for minor crimes; after one lengthy sentence, he returns home to discover that his lover has replaced him with another man. He eventually drifts back into the urban maelstrom. Prolific, explicit sex scenes reinforce the plight of the artist, and thus a society, limited to physical pleasures where life offers no intellectual or creative rewards. "It's been years since I expected anything, anything at all, of women, or of friends, or even of myself, of anyone." Guti rrez's talent lies in creating a macho, self-abusive protagonist who remains engagingly sympathetic. This searing, no-holds-barred portrait of modern Cuba, expertly translated by Wimmer into prose strong in the rhythms and vulgar beauty of the city, comes complete with a sexy jacket photo. It will attract readers who like their fiction down, dirty and literate. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Grotesquely compelling...Pedro Juan Gutierrez appears destined to become a cult writer.' TLS 'A tale of human ingenuity and hidden hopefulness overcoming near-insuperable odds.' Guardian 'One of the sexiest books I have read in a long time.' David Profumo, Literary Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Ecco Press; (4th) edition (February 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060006897
• ISBN-13: 978-0060006891
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Griity look at modern Cuba December 25, 2000

By Harriet Klausner #1 HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

Following the collapse of the silver spoon better known as the Soviet Union, Castro decided to "reform" the Cuban economy in the early nineties. However, the slight change in what a local can own and sell has little effect on the disenfranchised intellectual community.

As an idealistic youth, Pedro Juan expected to become a great writer, but by early 1993, he can no longer deal with journalist reports that treat everyone as if they are morons. He quits his day job and becomes a Communist entrepreneur selling anything and everything including his body. At time he crosses the economic legal line and lands in jail. As he becomes more depravingly self-centered, Pedro Juan seeks wine, women, and weed with no hope for more than a bleak decaying future even with the beautiful Caribbean just outside his reach.

DIRTY HAVANA TRILOGY is a gritty, at times deliberately written in poor taste, series of grimy vignettes loosely tied together through the main character. The story line is not for the faint of heart as Pedro Juan Gutierrez paints a grim, gray look at modern Cuban society. Readers will loathe and sympathize over the downward spiral of the antihero, who compensates from a lack of mental activities with many me-me physical pursuits. Bluntly, Pedro Juan is a racist, sexist person, who deserves no empathy, yet manages to garner plenty from the audience. This novel is quite graphic sexually. It is also a no holds look at a decaying society that Pedro Juan symbolizes in every way possible, spiraling into depravity. This well-written quasi-autobiography will either bring adoring fans to the author or condemnation for bad taste without counting how Fidel will react.

Harriet Klausner

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Disgusting, Fascinating and Sad February 11, 2001

By Prudencio Montesino

Format:Hardcover

A must-read for would-be visitors to Cuba! As a cuban-american and lifelong student of Cuban history I was mezmerized by this down and dirty account of life in modern day Cuba. The graphic descriptions of sex and survival are not for the squeamish. Pedro Juan captures the hopelessness and despair that drive so many young cubans to risk their lives on rickety rafts. This "Dirty Havana Trilogy" assaults your senses but won't let you put it down.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A depraved life under a depraved system April 15, 2001

By Christopher W. Coffman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Gutierrez is a more honest Henry Miller--he reveals the rotten, despairing philosophical underpinnings of his sexual behaviour. Unlike Miller, who tried to justify his actions, Gutierrez is brutally honest about himself. The settings and events are often sordid and disgusting, but the narrator himself is a higher being, a refined sensibility still capable of acknowledging the truth about the actions to which he is driven. The Dirty Havana Trilogy also recalls "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", but the ultra low-budget sewer that is Castro's Cuba makes the Communist Czechoslavkia of Milan Kundera's time look like Donald Trump's New York.

Clearly, this is not a book for those who are easily offended. There is lots of meaningless death, meaningless sex, casually pejorative slurs on people of colour and women, descriptions of filthy and disgusting environments. But, notwithstanding the blurbs on the dust jacket of the book, Gutierrez's work is a very moral work in the sense that any reader will clearly see the cost of such behaviour and be unlikely to imitate the narrator.

It would be fascinating to systematically compare this book, with its indictment of the moral choices remaining to the ordinary person living under Casto's government, to Armando Valladares' "Against all Hope", which is also available on Amazon.com, of course.

This is another interesting addition to the "lying in the gutter and looking at the stars" genre. Highly recommended for those who are up for it.