Mona and Other Tales

Starred review from October 1, 2001
Buoyed by the recent surge of interest in Cuban culture, the energetic work of dissident Cuban writer Arenas (1943-90) has finally penetrated the consciousness of North American readers. Arenas's bracing memoir, Before Night Falls, ranks among the great testimonials to the power of the imagination in the face of state repression. This volume gathers stories (and one essay) that are available in English for the first time and span the range of Arenas's career. Several pieces burst with his enormously brave and productive defiance of any form of thought control, be it political repression or aesthetic convention. The title story is a late 20th-century allegory of exile and belonging reminiscent of Poe and de Sade, while "End of a Story" is a moving and yet spirited elegy to a love lost to suicide and a country lost to politics. This story is set on Key West and in Arenas's own imaginary island of Manhattan-cum-Havana and is filled with Whitmanian longing, caustic wit, and articulate rage. The two stories named "Parade" permit outsiders to approximate the experience of a revolution in a mob of words, and the small masterpiece "Alipio's Kingdom" reveals Arenas's abundant imagination and control of narrative form. Although the volume would have benefited from a short introduction, it is recommended for all public and academic libraries. Ulrich Baer, New York Univ.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.