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rocketiza's review against another edition
3.0
Takes her use of multiple perspectives to the next level in this novel, a bit too far if you ask me.
weyburn13's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ruthenator's review against another edition
3.0
This was pretty good, but serious eyerolling at the author naming the Eastern European Jewish-looking exotic dancer "Rachel K." Come on now.
bibliopage's review against another edition
5.0
One of my all-time favorite fiction books about Cuba! It tells the story of several American families living in Cuba in the years preceding the Cuban revolution of 1959. What I love about this book is that the story sheds light on U.S. colonies in Cuba (not too many novels do) and I also love that Kushner's novel is mainly told from the children's perspective as they attempt to make sense of the conflicting world around them--its vices and it's unjust social and racial hierarchies. The novel is unique in that it reads like a series of vignettes--like memories--of a Cuba that was home to many and its pleasures, capitalized by few. This is a definite must read!
zlad13's review against another edition
this is authorial self insert fanfic and nobody can tell me otherwise
rachelann88's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A lot of plot lines and they switch rapidly and with little context. Each story is interesting and well-written, but it moved slowly and zigzagged around a little too much for me to keep up with everything.
leavingsealevel's review against another edition
3.0
Oh I have lots of thoughts on this one.
First, it has come to my attention that I lack the ability to detect irony in literature. A couple of years ago, I read and thoroughly despised [b:The Last September|195990|The Last September|Elizabeth Bowen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320390978s/195990.jpg|2054543], on account of its "weepy nostalgia for a dying colonial regime" or something along those lines. The other day my friend (and she's a lit professor, so she knows these things) clued me in to the fact that said weepy nostalgia is supposed to be *ironic* (like hipsters).
So I will approach Telex from Cuba with the understanding that perhaps its characters' nostalgia for la united fruit co (read the Neruda poem of that title, btw) in Batista's Cuba is ironic too. That writing a novel in which (neo) colonizers sit around sipping drinks and worrying about the rebels is not in fact always an act of nostalgia for colonialism on the part of the author. This is so interesting and so problematic. I mean, on one hand I believe that a potential role for the privileged storyteller is to show the ugliness of a system of oppression by telling stories of the privileged actors in that system. Show their absurdity, their ridiculous wealth, their contradictions, the way the system warps *them*, too! On the other hand, here and in [b:The Last September|195990|The Last September|Elizabeth Bowen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320390978s/195990.jpg|2054543] (and in plenty of other books I'm sure), it feels uncomfortably close to irony as a cover for a little bit of true nostalgia for that privileged world--that dying colonial regime.
My father was a little USian kid in Latin America in the 1950s (not Cuba, I'll point out. and not as colonial a life, I like to believe). Perhaps on account of that and on account of the fact that I also lived there as a child, the excesses portrayed in this book make me incredibly uncomfortable. Maybe they're supposed to...if Kushner is being all ironic and writing to expose those excesses. In an interview with Powells, she says:
..also, thanks to one of my wonderful students for loaning me her copy!
First, it has come to my attention that I lack the ability to detect irony in literature. A couple of years ago, I read and thoroughly despised [b:The Last September|195990|The Last September|Elizabeth Bowen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320390978s/195990.jpg|2054543], on account of its "weepy nostalgia for a dying colonial regime" or something along those lines. The other day my friend (and she's a lit professor, so she knows these things) clued me in to the fact that said weepy nostalgia is supposed to be *ironic* (like hipsters).
So I will approach Telex from Cuba with the understanding that perhaps its characters' nostalgia for la united fruit co (read the Neruda poem of that title, btw) in Batista's Cuba is ironic too. That writing a novel in which (neo) colonizers sit around sipping drinks and worrying about the rebels is not in fact always an act of nostalgia for colonialism on the part of the author. This is so interesting and so problematic. I mean, on one hand I believe that a potential role for the privileged storyteller is to show the ugliness of a system of oppression by telling stories of the privileged actors in that system. Show their absurdity, their ridiculous wealth, their contradictions, the way the system warps *them*, too! On the other hand, here and in [b:The Last September|195990|The Last September|Elizabeth Bowen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320390978s/195990.jpg|2054543] (and in plenty of other books I'm sure), it feels uncomfortably close to irony as a cover for a little bit of true nostalgia for that privileged world--that dying colonial regime.
My father was a little USian kid in Latin America in the 1950s (not Cuba, I'll point out. and not as colonial a life, I like to believe). Perhaps on account of that and on account of the fact that I also lived there as a child, the excesses portrayed in this book make me incredibly uncomfortable. Maybe they're supposed to...if Kushner is being all ironic and writing to expose those excesses. In an interview with Powells, she says:
I suppose you could say the book is about a lost world. And depending upon who you are and what you're looking for, you could read it and say, "They had it coming." But not everyone has read it this way, particularly those who know and loved this lost world and are grateful to be able to revisit it in the pages of a book.I want no nostalgia for that world, not even nostalgia that is actually irony (and that quote doesn't sound particularly ironic, does it?). I don't want to love the lost world. I want to love Latin America TODAY, the world(s) where people have struggled for justice and sometimes won, and where those struggles are still going on. To his credit, I think my father feels the same way to some extent--a greater extent than any white character in Telex from Cuba, though probably not to the degree I do. I'm giving him a copy for Christmas...partly so I can ask him, "so did this book make you feel nostalgic or really pissed?"
..also, thanks to one of my wonderful students for loaning me her copy!
hollymaia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mouchacha's review against another edition
5.0
Brillant et formidablement bien écrit.
L’atmosphère est peinte à perfection et la trame narrative rend compte (parfois avec sensibilité, souvent avec ironie, mais toujours avec mordant; une sorte de litote fait roman) des inégalités économiques et sociales du Cuba pré-révolution.
Écrit en narration polyphonique (« un chapitre, un personnage »), on suit l’histoire d’une poignée d’Américains à Cuba dans les années entourant la révolution cubaine. Les particularités marquées des personnages permettent d’éviter qu’on d’étourdisse trop d’un chapitre à l’autre, mais il peut quand même être pertinent de se faire un petit aide-mémoire en cours de lecture pour noter les noms (complets, car pas toujours utilisés de la même façon en fonction du narrateur du chapitre) et les relations entre les personnages. Bien qu’un peu agacée au début par le mode choisi de narration (qui a envie de prendre des notes en lisant un roman?), j’ai compris au fil des pages toute la richesse narrative que cela permet d’ajouter au récit dans ce cas-ci: évidemment, un même événement ne sera pas perçu et relaté de la même façon par un enfant que par un révolutionnaire de métier (spoiler: et de pacotille!).
(Aussi, les apparitions de Hemmigway: du bonbon!)
À lire et relire.
L’atmosphère est peinte à perfection et la trame narrative rend compte (parfois avec sensibilité, souvent avec ironie, mais toujours avec mordant; une sorte de litote fait roman) des inégalités économiques et sociales du Cuba pré-révolution.
Écrit en narration polyphonique (« un chapitre, un personnage »), on suit l’histoire d’une poignée d’Américains à Cuba dans les années entourant la révolution cubaine. Les particularités marquées des personnages permettent d’éviter qu’on d’étourdisse trop d’un chapitre à l’autre, mais il peut quand même être pertinent de se faire un petit aide-mémoire en cours de lecture pour noter les noms (complets, car pas toujours utilisés de la même façon en fonction du narrateur du chapitre) et les relations entre les personnages. Bien qu’un peu agacée au début par le mode choisi de narration (qui a envie de prendre des notes en lisant un roman?), j’ai compris au fil des pages toute la richesse narrative que cela permet d’ajouter au récit dans ce cas-ci: évidemment, un même événement ne sera pas perçu et relaté de la même façon par un enfant que par un révolutionnaire de métier (spoiler: et de pacotille!).
(Aussi, les apparitions de Hemmigway: du bonbon!)
À lire et relire.