Customer Reviews

Dreaming in Cuban

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This gem of a first novel, written in 1992, by Christina Garcia is the story of Cuba as well as the story of a few unforgettable Cuban women. The words themselves have a lyrical quality as the the tale evolves through their different voices.

Set in the 1970's, Celia del Pino, in her 60s, is a loyal Cuban patriot, who lives by the sea. Her daughter, Lourdes, has fled to America and owns a bakery in Brooklyn. The other daughter, Felicia, still in Cuba, shows signs of mental unbalance and dabbles in Santeria. Her granddaughter, Pilar, a rebellious teenager, has been raised in America but feels a deep connection with her grandmother in Cuba.

There's a dreamlike quality to the book and a touch of the mystical as each character is deeply developed and the story evolves through their inner memories. Strong characterization is the author's strength as well as the way she weaves the stories of each of them together. They've all been effected by the revolution and it shapes the form of this book.

Not only did reading this book introduce me to its interesting characters, it also taught me more about the Cuban revolution than I ever learned from just reading the newspapers. And it piqued my interest in wanting to know more.

Recommended.

Here is a truly unforgettable book. I was entranced from the very first sentence: "Celia del Pino, equipped with binoculars and wearing her best housedress and drop pearl earrings, sits in her wicker swing guarding the north coast of Cuba."

From that moment on, I was drawn as surely into this book as the tides in the sea that Celia is guarding. "Dreaming in Cuban" tells the story of the Cuban Revolution from the point of view of three generations of women: the above-mentioned Celia, the grandmother; her daughters, Felicia and Lourdes; and Lourdes' own daughter, Pilar. Each of the three older women, and perhaps Pilar, a 20-ish New York artist, is quite totally mad. Thus we see and hear and feel the revolution from the hallucinatory perceptions of Celia, who worships El Lider (Castro) with ferocity; Felicia, who is torn between old Cuba--its superstitions, its voodoo, its passion--and the modern Cuba, where she is sentenced to a work camp; and Lourdes, who has escaped to Brooklyn and proudly owns the Yankee Doodle Bakery.

There is violence, murder, passion, birth and death in this book, but all told in a sort of lyrical mist, so that the reader feels the torpid heat of the Cuban day, the gentle warmth of the sea, and the breezes that stir the palms. All is dreamlike, which makes the reality of modern Cuba almost impossible to grasp. As one of the main characters says toward the end of the book: "Cuba is a peculiar exile...an island-colony. We can reach it by a thirty-minute charter flight from Miami, yet never reach it at all."

And yet, after reading this incredible book, I feel for the first time that I have some understanding of that small island nation. Or maybe it is all a dream.

I have to read this book for school, which automatically sounds a warning bell in my head: boring. So, as I sat at work with boredom threatening to force me to abandon all sanity, I sighed and picked up the book. From the very first sentence, I was hooked. Perhaps it wasn't only the plot that kept my attention focused, but also the fabulous writing style of the author. I didn't just read about Cuba, I felt Cuba. I didn't just read about the characters, I understood them. I ached for them. I pitied Pilar, whose mother reads her diary and punishes the young teenager for her emerging sense of sexuality. I pitied the twins, who faced a father's abuse and a mother's dwindling sanity with their stubborn, resilient silence. Cuban and United States relationships fall into the background amidst a story that could show up anywhere. The caring, but somewhat troubled grandmother, her rebellious daughter who's raising her own hellion, her troubled daughter who's twin daughters and young son have seen too much of the world... There is a certain sadness that follows these people struggling to go through the motions of love and family, held together by the ties of mother to child, forced apart by misunderstanding and uncertainty.

I truly love this novel and I make it a point to read it at least once a year. Everytime it makes me cry not just because the decriptions of Cuba, New York and Miami are so beautiful but because the relationship between the women in this story is so vital. I think this book helped me truly undertsand feminism in all its forms. Whether they are a capitalist, communist, democrat or republican the women in this novel all strive for freedom of thought and love and find it in their own unique ways. I can't say enough positive things about Dreaming in Cuban. All I can say, is that I wish I could be you reading this novel for the first time.

This finalist for the National Book Award tellsthe story of three generations of a Cuban family.Indelible images and vivid characters combine to create a dreamlike evocation of Cuban life. Celia del Pino is the matriarch of a family that spans from Havana to Brooklyn, New York. She is unswervingly patriotic in her support of Fidel Castro, while her daughter Lourdes in the United States has embraced her new life and its capitalism by opening a chain of bakeries. Celia's second daughter is ambivalent toward the revolution as she deals with abuse and mental illness. Mothers and daughters may disagree, but Celia's granddaughter forms an emotional bond with her faraway grandmother. Using fragmentary vignettes, Dreaming in Cuban is reminiscent of stories repeated down through the generations, and the reader feels a connection to this family. Try it if you liked How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez or The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields.

A Cuban myself, I was deeply touched by this book when I first read it. Garcia masterly captures the inner conflicts that all her character experience when trying to find a point in this crazy family separation and bigotry. There are very subtle contrasts between the diverse forms of religions that presently coexist in Cuba; also, they play an important metaphorical element when analyzed in a political context. "El lider," as the author refers to Fidel Castro, plays a remote, mythical element, so distant, yet so tangibly close to the life of every Cuban, commanding, exerting his hypnotic power to enthral the masses in hysterical ecstacy. The story flows with ease and makes occasional transitions in time, going from the discursive moment to the past through Celia's letters, making a powerful cohesion of present past and future; attempting to find coherence in this shameful historical accident that segmented families and a whole culture in the sake of an ideology....

Dreaming in Cuban depicts the personal and political tensions of a family divided geographically and politically across Cuba and the US. The feeling of dislocation and disconnection/connection between the American and the Cuban sides of the family is convincingly portrayed through the voices and narratives of various family members of different generations, most of whom are women. Although Garcia provides us with some very pretty prose and well-drawn incidents, the novel suffers structurally from its fragmented style and leaves the reader unenlightened and unsatisfied by the end. Although I enjoyed Dreaming in Cuban, I felt the experience was marred by the lack of closure and by the lack of being hit by any fresh insight despite the well-drawn images and relationships. I also thought that some - although not all - of the mysticism concerning Santeria was unconvincing and detracted from the novel's strength in depicting the personal relationships of the parents and children and grandchildren. However, Garcia should be credited for effectively portraying the tensions between a family divided across political, geographical, cultural and generational borders and for doing so with some very pretty prose and humor.

For readers looking for a similar kind of read, I would strongly recommend The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

I was told to read this book for a Latino Lit. class in college, and once I picked it up I wasn't able to put it down. This book vividly paints pictures of a family that is torn apart by things such as adultery, lust, insanity, and political insecurity...yet they are still able to be a family. This book was one of the best books I have ever read...I recommend it to everyone, and hopefully you can connect with it like I did!

Dreaming in Cuban is a superb novel which delves into the themes of family, history, culture, and self-definition. The novel focuses on one Cuban family that has become divided. Celia, the matriarch of the family, lives in Cuba as a loyal supporter of Castro. Her two daughters have both estranged themselves from the family and have consequently lost their sense of Cuban identity. Lourdes is a fervent opponent of the Castro regime and has moved to the United States in an attempt to redefine her identity. Felicia turns to santeria, a cultish religion stemming from West Africa. Both daughters have abandoned a close relationship with their mother and each other in order to escape their Cuban heritage. The only hope for re-uniting this family is Lourdes' daughter Pilar, but does she possess the ability to discover what it means to be Cuban...? This is an excellent story, full of vivid imagery, which delves into complicated family dynamics and cultural identity. You will be hooked from the first page and left with a greater appreciation of your own roots.

"Dreaming in Cuban" was beautifully written from the point of view of various members of the same family. The story is told through the eyes of different generations of women (and occasionally their men), each with fascinatingly different outlooks. I found the story compelling, and I was unable to put down the book until I finished it.

Not only was there a glimpse of the political situation in Cuba, there was also a description of the relationships between mothers and their daughters, the way that the women interact with each other and with the world around them.

Although I typically find letters thrown into a novel to tell parts of the story confusing and distracting, here the letters written by Ceila to her ex-lover provide a beautiful complement to the flow of the tale.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an appreciation for an interesting method of storytelling. The way that the book jumps around between times and characters may be confusing for some, but I found it only added to my overall enjoyment.