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The Second Death of Unica Aveyano

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THE SECOND DEATH OF UNICA AVEYANO by Ernesto Mestre-Reed

The novel THE SECOND DEATH OF UNICA AVEYANO, written by the highly acclaimed author Ernesto Mestre-Reed, is being compared to the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabelle Allende, and rightly so. In this novel, Mestre-Reed takes the reader into the world of Unica Aveyano, a Cuban immigrant now living with her family in the United States. She is also dying from cancer. Using techniques that are common in novels by Marquez and Allende, Mestre-Reed writes a vividly surreal-like story that moves back and forth between Cuba and the United States, told in dreamlike flashbacks and always returning back to the present. This is the story of Unica and her epic life story, which starts in Cuba before Castro comes to power, and will end in America.

The story revolves around Unica's life, but is interspersed with the news headline of Elian Gonzales, the young Cuban boy that was found adrift at sea and rescued, finally taken to Miami to be with his American relatives. His story parallels that of Unica's, for she is also a Cuban immigrant who left one member behind in the homeland, her son Candido. The book is a complex set of disjointed flashbacks, telling the story of three generations. Each character in this book is unique, each one having a more quirky history than the next. Together, they tell the story of Unica's life.

It takes a while for the reader to be able to put the pieces together to understand the complete story of Unica. But it is well worth the effort. It is a short novel, less than 300 pages, but Mestre-Reed is able to tell an entire life-story within these pages. This is not an easy read. But, this reviewer found it time worth spent, and highly recommends THE SECOND DEATH OF UNICA AVEYANO.

I loved this book. The writing is luminous, the characters are well-crafted, and the story line is compelling.

Ernesto words are poetry. his command of language makes the words flow in this wonderful story where ernesto transports us back to Cuba, to another way of seeing the world

The Second Death of Unica Aveyano showcases both Ernesto Mestre-Reed's considerable strengths and weaknesses. He is a very good writer with a compelling writing style and has a knack for developing a diverse range of interesting, unique characters. Unfortunately, he crafts here a story so complexly disjointed it's frustratingly hard to follow. And, on occasion, his characters plod past interesting and unique into the realm of bizarre caricature. He also indulges n plot scenarios that border on the absurd. All in all it makes for a very exasperating read.

The book is based both in the US and Cuba and cuts back and forth through flashbacks so often one occasionally gets vertigo trying to keep up. There is very little early character development so one is trying to puzzle through who the players are for quite a while, a situation which detracts from the story itself. Moreover, through parts of the book, though not others, the story juxtaposes itself against the Elian Gonzalez story (that 6 year old whose mother died trying to get to the US and who then became the focus of a huge custody battle between S relatives and his father in Cuba). There are times when you almost begin to think elian is the real focus of the story-and then he completely disappears for 50-60 pages. Again, frustrating and confusing.

Unica Aveyano is a Cuban housewife and Mother with a checkered history of sorts. Her husband, Modesto, sees her, at the age of 16, on a visit home from the capital where he is a lawyer, falls for her, stays on and woo and wed her. She is recovering from cancer treatments and the book si told from her perspective. The real focus of the book, however, pops up in the form of their only child, Candido. Things may be confused and frustrating up to this point but here they fall apart. Cabdido's life history is a sad joke, a run to absurdity that is too much to bear. There's tragedy and there idiocy-and in Candido, Mestre-Reed crosses the line.

Having said all that, the fact is Mestre-Reed can in fact write-quite compelling so. He stays in the realm of reality just enough that one is inclined to gut this one out to see how it all pulls together in the end.

Unfortunately, it never does quite pull together in the end and the ending itself is quite anti-climactic.

This is a writer with great potential. One can only hope he hones his plot skills and reigns in his imagination a bit and actually writes the really good book that clearly he is capable of writing.