Welcome to Miami [Paperback]

Michael Largo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001

WELCOME TO MIAMI Planes, buses, the interstates packed, boats, rafts washing up, all kinds of ways to get to this run-off of the continent, everyone looking for freedom or escape from something weaseling in their heads...

Miami has been called Americas tropical playground, Gateway to the Americas, and heralded as a glimpse into how the nations metropolitan areas will be in the future. Its a unique city promising a dynamic blend of cultures. It is also the preferred destination of exiles and refugees seeking the American Dream.

WELCOME TO MIAMI is a story narrated by Max, a native Floridian born in the Everglades telling of his time with one headline grabbing Cuban infiltrator, Emilio Garcia Abierto, an exile who first arrived with 125,000 other refugees during the Mariel exodus. Although WELCOME TO MIAMI could not get the Miami Tourist Boards endorsement, it is an entertaining and insightful tale of Cubans, Miami, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the sun.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Emilio Garcia Abierto is the Billy Pilgrim, the na?ve innocent, at the heart of this mostly comic tale of a Mariel refugee who believes for two decades that he has been sent to America to operate as a James Bond-style super-spy for Fidel Castro. That's the joke that runs the length and depth of Largo's novelAthough even more amusing is the possibility that Abierto (literal translation: open) might be correct. The narrative is told frame style, with Abierto's good friend Max, a Florida native, pitching Abierto's story to a movie "scout." Max is one of the regulars who hang out at Pecker's Bait & Tackle, and he trucks out refugees from downtown Miami to work for wealthy old man Manuel, one of the original landowners to flee Cuba when Castro came to power. Subplots include Tom Pecker's plan to "discover" a bigfoot in the Everglades, and Ma Pecker's resurgent sexuality. Largo nails the grudging and grungy treatment accorded the Marielitos by every ethnic slice of the Miami pie, and he lampoons American plenty, which plays a big role in events. Even Fidel, heavily veiled in cartoon disguises, makes an appearance at the ragged edge of the Everglades for the sake of lust and Cocoa Puffs. Throughout, Abierto never loses his movie-fueled belief in the glamour of being a spy, or his faith in Castro-style communism. The sincere, humorless Abierto's 20-year initiation into the American dream is a thin thread to hang a plot on, however. Since Largo can't resist the contrast between Florida's color-saturated atmosphere and its Darwinian realities, his tone veers from slapstick to serious and back again, and the novel fails to gain solid ground. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Convincing characters and brilliant dialogue...with echoes of Flannery OConnor and Eudora Welty. -- Library Journal

Largos rendering of Floridas steamy side is convincingly squalid, and his characters manifest this grubbiness... -- Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Tropical Press (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966617347
• ISBN-13: 978-0966617344
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,483,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)