Infante's Inferno [Paperback]

Guillermo Cabrena Infante (Author), Suzanne Jill Levine (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2005

Hidden behind a cloak of exotic mystery, Cuba is virtually unknown to American citizens, G. Cabrera Infante--in Infante's Inferno and several of his other novels--allows readers to peek behind the curtain surrounding this island and see the vibrant life that existed there before Fidel Castro's regime. Detailing the sexual education and adventures of the author, Infante's Inferno is a lush, erotic, funny book that provides readers with insight into what it was like to grow up in pre-revolutionary Havana. Viewing every girl as a potential lover, and the movies as a place both for entertainment and potential sexual escapades, Cabera Infante captures the adolescent male mindset with a great deal of fun and self-consciousness. With his hallmark of puns and wordplay--excellently translated by Suzanne Jill Levine--Cabrera Infante has a hilariously updated of the Don Juan myth in a tropical setting.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This duo from 1971 and 1984, respectively, are vastly different. Inferno is an autobiographical novel that serves up a protagonist who fancies himself a true Latin lover. TTT, on the other hand, takes a more serious look at life in the cabaret society of pre-Castro Havana. Both, however, feature the author's signature wordplay.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Infante's Inferno is a funny, lubricous, autobiographical novel of a would-be rake's progress."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 410 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH edition (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564783847
• ISBN-13: 978-1564783844
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #892,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, wonderful and hilarious, September 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Infante's Inferno (Paperback)

The greatest living Cuban writer, and one of the most important in all Latin America, Cabrera Infante's "Infante's Inferno," the English version of "La Habana para un Infante Difunto" is a wise, brilliant, wonderful and hilarious musing of a young man's coming of age in pre-Revolutionary Havana. A rich, delicious work to be savored like a mojito or your mother's caramel custard (flan, assuming your mother knows how to make one). Although grounded in a very specific time and place, Cabrera Infante writes for the ages, a tropical Dickens, only funnier and scabrous. After all, there are few things more important in life than women and movies.