The Palace of the White Skunks [Hardcover]

Reinaldo Arenas (Author), Andrew Hurley (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1991

The second novel in the Pentagonia, this is a phantasmagoric novel of adolescent rebellion and political revolution.

"A beautiful, heartfelt book by a passionate and epic writer at the height of his powers." --Oscar Hijuelos

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arenas's ( Singing from the Well ) stunning novel, set during the Cuban revolution, begins with the ominous figure of Death sitting in the yard of an impoverished rural family, spinning a bicycle wheel. In the course of the novel, God will make an appearance, as do familial ghosts, their presences in this stylistically rich, surrealistic narrative as important as those of any of the living participants. The life and death of young Fortunato, who joins the rebels and is tortured and executed by government forces, is told by a cacophony of voices, including those of his eccentric aunt, tyrannical grandfather, mischievous cousins and his own often anguished self. Fortunato, we learn, was raised almost as an orphan: his mother emigrated to North America; his father was unknown. His childhood, spent on a farm in the hill country, is not idyllic but far more pleasant than the nightmarish existence he leads when his grandparents move to town in order to sell fruit and vegetables to employees of a guava-paste factory. This venture is a disaster and the family sinks into even deeper poverty. As he enters his teens, Fortunato feels compelled to prove his masculinity via alcohol and women, and he earns a reputation as being half-crazed. His infatuation with the rebel cause and the price he pays for it are hauntingly described, bringing this explosive period in recent history uncomfortably close to the American reader.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This semi-autobiographical tale by an author expelled from Cuba a decade ago takes up where Singing in the Well ( LJ 7/87) left off. Fortunato, now an adolescent living in a household of loud and vexatious women, moves with them from the country to the drab and unhistorical city of Holguin, where they set up a sugarcane press, spar with each other in frustration, and stink of rotten fruit. City life, he reasons, will be tough, because cities are what turned his girl cousins into prostitutes. Things get so bad (God is addressed as "you old faggot") that the family tries to forget its private hell by adopting the hell that is "for everyone alike." When Fortunato joins the rebels in 1958, the quality of his life does not improve. Arenas's unconventional narrative impressively combines dialog, mini-plays, advertisements, and newspaper reports into a lyrical and harmonious portrait of hardship and despair in Batista's Cuba.
-Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cum berland, Md.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (January 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670815101
• ISBN-13: 978-0670815104
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,689,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional, July 10, 2000

By 

Richard Harrold (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Palace of the White Skunks: A Novel (Paperback)

In this, the second book of five about revolutionary Cuba, Arenas brings us into the city to continue on the life of Fortunato, the boy narrator introduced in Singing from the Well. Fortunato is older now, and the narrative reflects this maturity by following a more chronological format. But his torment, misery and anger is no less. Always in the background is the gunfire of the reveloution which captivates Fortunato and eventually ensnares him.

While less difficult than Singing from the Well, The Palace of the White Skunks is still no easy read. Yet both books are extraordinary. Anyone interested in reading Latin American authors must include Arenas.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A horror story, February 19, 2005

By 

Just another guy with too much time on his hands (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Palace of the White Skunks: A Novel (Paperback)

I haven't read all five of Reinaldo Arenas' Pentagonia, of which this is the second book, so I have to treat this as a standalone novel. What a novel it is, though! The story concerns itself mainly with the teenage protagonist (Fortunato) who is slowly but inexorably driven to utter desperation by the totally banal evil of everyday life: poverty, hopelessness, the frankly loathsome behavior of a family member. When the other characters in this tale receive treatment, they turn out to be as desperate, unsatisfied, or as crazy as humanly possible. The overwhelming atmosphere in the book can be easily described: no way out. No hope. No future. Eventually the food runs out for the poor family, and Fortunato decides to take his chance with the rebels that have recently popped up in Batista's Cuba. Like everything else in the hero's life, it doesn't work out...

Brief passages interspersed in the narrative take us back to examine the life of Fortunato's grandfather, who's in large part responsible for the misery of the family (or at least as I see it). Driven by unbelievable desperation, capable of murder, Fortunato's grandfather is also easily duped, taken advantage of by smooth talkers, and takes out every frustration on his wife and his progeny (all disappointingly daughters). The fearsome back story provides us with all we need to know about the family's situation...

Arenas liberally uses magic realism to communicate the fraying sanities, the absolute wit's end, of the characters. The ghosts of Fortunato's dead cousins appear, speak amongst themselves, and drop hints about his fate. I felt this only contributed to the atmosphere of insanity, of the final destruction of the human being. In short, this is a masterpiece, but don't expect to be uplifted.