The Second Death of Unica Aveyano (Paperback)

by Ernesto Mestre-Reed (Author)
Key Phrases: ernesto mestre reed, house under the world, chicken feather mattress, Dagoberto Masa, Christophe Evesque, Key West (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From The Washington Post
As Saint Augustine pointed out in The Confessions, humans spend their lives constantly poised between the past and the future, riding the evanescent wave of the present, the crest of which is at once utterly real and unreal, for there is never any point that can be really claimed as "now" -- for as soon as one utters the word, the moment has passed. Since the present is as elusive as a flowing river, memory is at the core of our being, and remembering is our identity.

Ernesto Mestre-Reed's new novel is a marvelously poetic meditation on time and memory, and on the ways in which past, present and future relate to one another in any person's life. In this case, the novel's main character happens to be a Cuban exile. Though, as her name announces, she represents the uniqueness of the individual -- as well as the singularity of Cuban culture -- Única Aveyano is also a universal figure, an embodiment of the joys and sorrows of the human race as a whole and especially of the ways in which we are affected by our past. Weaving in and out of the ephemeral "now," Mestre-Reed tells the tale of Única and her immediate family across three generations, beginning in pre-revolutionary Guantánamo and ending in present-day South Florida and New York.

Mestre-Reed builds plot and characters as one would assemble a puzzle. Piece by piece, through glimpses that are at once furtive and revealing, the reader discerns a larger picture. Única is never alone: She is always seen in relation to those around her, and especially to her family. Similarly, no event in her life stands alone. By stringing events from different periods next to each other in the narrative -- even though they might be separated by decades -- the author manages to portray Única's life as a seamless whole. Paradoxically, this constant shuffling makes the connections between the characters across time seem all the more poignant and substantial.

Because Única is an exile, separation and loss figure prominently in her story, and Mestre-Reed does a superb job of representing the Cuban revolution as a tragedy on the personal level. When Única decides to leave Cuba, it is not due to ideological abstractions or even such economic reasons as having to put up with rationing, but rather because Fidel Castro's political repression has simply made life intolerable. By the time he has been in power for three years, Fidel is being spoken of by Única's husband -- who knew him as a hotheaded revolutionary at the university -- "with the derision one might reserve for an ex-wife who had run away with another man." When the family is split apart, it is not just because of the revolution, but also because of the domestic battle between love and alienation. Única's son Cándido, an eccentric and shiftless artist, abandons his wife and child before any decision is made to leave Cuba. He remains behind, a deluded man roaming the streets of Havana "as if he were strolling through the great boulevards of Europe," only to later regret his choice. Mestre-Reed thus portrays the revolution as Cubans actually experienced it: something that affects every decision, making the ordinary fabric of life and all of its traumas more complex.

The specter of Elián Gonzalez looms large in this novel -- bobbing on the waves, seized by federal marshals, driven back to Cuba by political forces. Elián is a symbol in a very Catholic way for Única: In a transubstantiation of sorts, he is the embodiment of Cuba and of every child, his fate representing all in life that should not happen, all that is unjust and senseless.

Mestre-Reed displays uncommon virtuosity as a writer, and much of this book reads like poetry. Here, for example, he makes something as prosaic as the dubbing of foreign films into a metaphysical and epistemological meditation:

"On Friday nights, he took her to el teatro on Calixto García to watch American movies. The badly dubbed voices always reminded Única, as she watched the oblivious yanqui actors, moving their lips and saying nothing or screaming with their mouths shut, of the possessed man in the Gospel of Luke. And when she watched these movies again, so many years later, to learn to speak English so she could talk to her own grandson, the actors having regained their voices (their very selves, it seemed), it was as if in the intervening years, the Lord had touched them and cast out all their demons."

Several images in this novel stand out: There is Única stumbling naked and bruised into the surf on Miami Beach, rescued from drowning by the spirits of would-be refugees who had been swallowed by the sea. There is the wisteria vine from Cándido's subterranean bunker, which completely envelops a Soviet-built apartment building and brings it crashing down. There is Única trying to kill herself by eating -- gingerly and with the utmost composure -- the Christmas ornaments she brought from Cuba. This suicidal holiday repast is Única's first "death," from which she recovers. Her second, like the deaths of Cubans drowned at sea in their search for a better life, is also partly chosen.

Única is a creature blessed with free will in a world that ultimately offers little room for choice, or for pure happiness, even in the most blessedly free country. Ernesto Mestre-Reed has managed to write a work of fiction that, like all great art, both captures and transcends the life of its subject, and that has the capacity to transform for the better the lives of all who come in contact with it.

Reviewed by Carlos M.N. Eire

Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
A Miami nursing home is no place for Unica Aveyano, as she vociferously reminds her daughter-in-law at every opportunity. Although she is ill with terminal cancer and terribly frail, she cannot bear the thought of spending one more night wandering the halls or sitting by the cracked windows. Miraculously, she finds her way out the door, across a four-lane highway, and into the ocean. When she is rescued by her male nurse, she gravely tells him that she was led there by a pack of wild angels. Her past is suddenly more alive to her than the present, and she spends hours immersed in memories of her Cuban childhood, her marriage, and her son, a bisexual artist who refused to emigrate with them. She has no time for her mournful husband, who is sick at the thought of being left behind. Mestre-Reed (The Lazarus Rumba, 1999) is a lyric novelist of uncommon power, creating a memorable portrait of a woman wracked by longing and memory yet fearlessly embracing her impending death. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (March 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400033160
• ISBN-13: 978-1400033164
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #374,492 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, March 9, 2004

By	Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars author who is both fiction writer and poet, August 14, 2004

By	N. J. Neuwirth "njn MFA" (Ct) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Utterly disjointed story undermines very good writing., April 23, 2004

By	David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.