Dirty Havana trilogy /

The streetwise gutsiness of Bukowski and Miller pervades Cuban poet Gutirrez's raunchy, symbolic, semi-autobiographical debut novel of life in 1990s Havana. Although the title suggests a triptych, the work more closely resembles a mosaic of short stories bursting with vivid images of exhilaration, depravity, desire and isolation. Narrator Pedro Juan, middle-aged and fed up, has rejected his career as a journalist because "I always had to write as if stupid people were reading me." Resisting the mass exodus from Cuba of August 1994, Pedro Juan now wanders the streets of Havana like a footloose Bacchus, indulging himself with women, marijuana and rum. He survives through a series of menial jobs. His rooftop apartment in central Havana has a spectacular Caribbean view but is, like all dwellings in the decaying economy, frequently without water. Pedro Juan is imprisoned more than once for minor crimes; after one lengthy sentence, he returns home to discover that his lover has replaced him with another man. He eventually drifts back into the urban maelstrom. Prolific, explicit sex scenes reinforce the plight of the artist, and thus a society, limited to physical pleasures where life offers no intellectual or creative rewards. "It's been years since I expected anything, anything at all, of women, or of friends, or even of myself, of anyone." Gutirrez's talent lies in creating a macho, self-abusive protagonist who remains engagingly sympathetic. This searing, no-holds-barred portrait of modern Cuba, expertly translated by Wimmer into prose strong in the rhythms and vulgar beauty of the city, comes complete with a sexy jacket photo. It will attract readers who like their fiction down, dirty and literate. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The "dirty" in the title refers as much to the sleazy squalor of the Cuban capital as to the salacious nature of this work, but any attempt to equate the latter with the former fails to ignite. When not working in a low-paying job, the picaresque narrator, who appears ubiquitously in all three sections, whiles away his time chasing women, smoking pot, and drinking rum. He is unlikable, unsympathetic, sexist, and racist. The secondary characters are wooden and underdeveloped. The sex scenes, of which there are many, are repetitive and tasteless, if not distasteful. The blotches of humor are too infrequent, and the narrator's occasional introspective musings are not substantial enough to redeem the overall quality of the book. Not recommended.ÄLawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.