King of Cuba

April 8, 2013
In her fun new novel, Garcia (Dreaming in Cuban) explores the hatred Goyo Herrera, an expatriate geriatric Cuban, harbors toward his arch enemy El Comandante, a contemporary who still wields formidable power in their homeland. El Comandante reminisces about the bygone days of revolutionary glory while expressing disgust for the current state of Cuba. In contrast, the widower Goyo lives in Miami with his daughter and takes phone calls from his depressed son, a man of almost 60 with a brain “irremediably fried by cocaine,” meanwhile concocting revenge schemes against his nemesis. Goyo doesn’t realize El Comandante also reels from the effects of aging, enduring denture pain and suffering other indignities in effort to make himself appear robust for a television appearance. For both men, Cuba has become legendary in its own way. El Comandante contemplates what he considers victories while Goyo remembers a land that has faded in his memory—“perhaps Cuba had become nothing but an imaginary place unrelated to any truth.” Interspersed with short narratives by Cubans from various walks of life, Garcia’s writing is laced with candor and wit as she portrays the lives of two men united by the past. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group.

May 1, 2013

In her sixth novel (after The Lady Matador's Hotel), Garcia alternates between El Comadante, a fictionalized Fidel Castro, and Goyo Herrera, a Cuban exile living in Miami who dreams of killing the dictator. The two have more in common than they would likely admit. Both are beset by old age and illness, both have regrets as they ponder the past and cope with the present, and both struggle to deal with family members: the dictator with his brother, who has taken over running the island, and Goyo with his two adult children. There are shocking scenes describing the dictator's cruelty (e.g., with regard to hunger strikers), but Garcia's humor comes through clearly. Mostly, though, this is a story of two old men nearing the ends of their lives in two Cubas. VERDICT Although not entirely gripping, this story holds one's interest, especially in its portrait of El Comadante and his brother and comes to a satisfying conclusion. Recommended for fans of Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban. [See Prepub Alert, 11/26/12.]--Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC

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