The Lazarus Rumba: A Novel [Paperback]

Lisa Dillman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2000

This extraordinarily ambitious novel sets out to portray the spiritual landscape of the Cuban people in the wake of Castro's revolutionary upheaval. Like Cervantes' Don Quixote, The Lazarus Rumba describes a country beset by social dislocation and personal confusion, a country whose soul is best captured by a lush magic realism woven from innumerable tales told in voices both melancholy and lively, lyrical and coarse, delicate and grotesque. As intensely political as Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Lazarus Rumba centers around three generations of woman in the Lucientes family and follows the story of Alicia Lucientes as, almost inadvertently, she becomes the most famous dissident on the island.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The intent of Mestre's first novel appears to be no less than to forge the uncreated conscience of his homeland, Cuba, an undertaking that even Joyce put off for his second book. The result is an imposing novel attempting to combine the fantastical bent of Garc!a M rquez with the political intentions of Kundera, and if Mestre's does not quite pull it off, his feverish, often baroque tale has undeniable power. Divided into three parts, this elaborate debut intertwines the stories of more than a dozen charactersAamong them a three-eyed, bisexual acrobat; a young widow who becomes a famous political dissident; a demonic circus performer with a penchant for young boys; a tolerant priest and a mute roosterAas they experience the rush and aftermath of Castro's revolution. Evidence of Mestre's prodigious imagination is ubiquitousAin his unusual characters, in the many subplots, twists, turns and transformations (after inventing a powerful guava-based aphrodisiac, one character turns into a river fish and is promptly eaten by his cat), in the onion layering of folklore within tales within stories. His prose has an uncommon exuberance that captures the lushness of his tropical setting. However, this vibrancy often gives way to ornate embellishment that can impede the momentum of the loosely structured plot, and the novel's big movements become obscured by its convoluted details. If Mestre still lacks the technical control and the balance between realism and fantasy that characterizes the best magical realists, the fecundity and ambitious scope of his work suggests that he may become a talent to watch. Agent, Harold Schmidt. (June) FYI: Mestre was born in Cuba and now lives in New York City.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Cuban-born Mestre's magnificent first novelAwhich hardly reads like a debutAis a tightly woven epic covering 30 years of Cuban history, from the 1950s through the 1970s. The novel centers on the counterrevolutionary dissident Alicia Lucientes and her gay cousin H?ctor, the generations before and after them, and the various convoluted relationships of their extended families. Elements of magic realism abound, from Atila, a fighting rooster subject to migraines, to giant rats baptized with biblical names; from spiders to Santer!a. Mestre gives credit to The Arabian Nights in his storytelling style; his episodic voices alternate between the vibrant and the ghostly, the gentle and the gross. For all collections of Hispanic literature.AMary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (July 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031226352X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312263522
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,069,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Balloon With the Air Let Out., August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lazarus Rumba (Hardcover)

I would have given this book five stars, because the first two major sections were brilliant... among the best of the literature I've read. Then Triste had to take up a lot of the third book, and I cheated on the book and started reading something else. This dropping of the book is going to bother me for a while... I highly recommend this book to other readers, especially those interested in the Cuban lifestyle, however, you must pretend that the book ends at the second part... even if the web involving Alicia and Julio Cesar Cruz is not resolved... or else skip Triste's tiring monologue.

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Reading Experience, September 21, 2005

By 

Marguerite Joyce "magilla" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lazarus Rumba: A Novel (Paperback)

The Lazarus Rumba is written gorgeously, and the story is at times sweet, sad, passionate, magical. It's a beautiful reading experience.

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best, June 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lazarus Rumba (Hardcover)

The Lazurus Rumba is one of the best I have read in a long time this book is fantastic!