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woodpusher's review
5.0
Advertencia: un libro para ser gozado, disfrutado y ponderado en tanto uno advierta y asimile la maestrÃa de Guillermo Cabrera Infante con el lenguaje y los juegos de palabras. Admirador que soy de los extraordinarios puns de Spider Robinson en la saga de Mike Callahan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callahan%27s_Crosstime_Saloon)aplaudo a rabiar el ingenio desenfadado de Cabrera Infante en este sublime exitoso experimento.Imprescindible.
chillcox15's review
4.0
A Joycean/Rabelaisian/Sternean portrait of Cuban nightlife by the screenwriter of one of the best movies of all time is reliably good-to-great, but I had a bit of a hope it would be even better than it was. At times, the wordplay and punnery came off as grating (which, admittedly, it maybe should) but without as much base satisfaction as it should.
blake_zissman's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
youpie's review against another edition
found it difficult to read, will try again another time.
hanntastic's review
3.0
Global Read Challenge 84: Cuba
This was a wild read. Totally unique. Infante plays around with words in a cool and interesting way and is excellent at capturing a variety of voices. I'm really fascinated by how this was able to be translated. I loved the first third, and then the word play was less novel and it became a slower read. There were still individual chapters and stories within the book I loved, but I felt it was much too long. If every description of women's breasts was cut, it could easily be 100 pages shorter. But anyone who likes experimental literature should pick it up.
This was a wild read. Totally unique. Infante plays around with words in a cool and interesting way and is excellent at capturing a variety of voices. I'm really fascinated by how this was able to be translated. I loved the first third, and then the word play was less novel and it became a slower read. There were still individual chapters and stories within the book I loved, but I felt it was much too long. If every description of women's breasts was cut, it could easily be 100 pages shorter. But anyone who likes experimental literature should pick it up.
chia_s's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mmcloe's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I feel so bad writing anything about this book because Cabrera Infante and his translators deserve so much more than anything I can offer.
The novel takes pre-Revolution Cuba (its language, nightlife, literary reputation, personal relationships, etc.) and turns it inside out, shakes its contents onto the ground, and assembles them into a scavenged sculpture of the city and how it's (mis)remembered. I'm particularly in love with Bustrofedon section and its relentless attack of puns and parodies and experimentations. I'll need to return to this novel when I'm leveled up as a reader and bring a map and some pencils along with me.
Also, I understand the Joyce comparisons but I think the novel is equally at home with Pynchon and Ishmael Reed and anticipates beautifully the writing of people like Bolano and Oloixarac.
The novel takes pre-Revolution Cuba (its language, nightlife, literary reputation, personal relationships, etc.) and turns it inside out, shakes its contents onto the ground, and assembles them into a scavenged sculpture of the city and how it's (mis)remembered. I'm particularly in love with Bustrofedon section and its relentless attack of puns and parodies and experimentations. I'll need to return to this novel when I'm leveled up as a reader and bring a map and some pencils along with me.
Also, I understand the Joyce comparisons but I think the novel is equally at home with Pynchon and Ishmael Reed and anticipates beautifully the writing of people like Bolano and Oloixarac.
cjcurtis's review
4.0
This is not the first Latin American novel to which I suspect I would give five stars, were I only smart enough to fully comprehend it. What is it with these guys? I loved the first 350-400 pages of this, and there was this 20-page chapter that truly blew my mind, but then the end was this seemingly endless night of baffling conversation, capped by a completely indecipherable page of stream-of-consciousness bizarrity.
In other words, I didn't get it, but for the most part, I loved it. If anyone reading this can tell me what the hell the last 100 pages were about, I would be most appreciative.
In other words, I didn't get it, but for the most part, I loved it. If anyone reading this can tell me what the hell the last 100 pages were about, I would be most appreciative.
tonyhightower's review
5.0
For my money, as underappreciated a novel as I have ever read. Imagine Joyce in Havana in the 1950's, hanging out with the two-bit glamor girls and the big-band underbelly of Cuban society, living an American Graffitiesque life with his two best friends, all of them chasing women and drink and privacy and kicks, and kicks, and kicks, and kicks.
When people say a book is laugh-out-loud funny, they generally don't mean it, but lovers of wordplay and who have even a vague understanding of mid-20th Century North American popular culture will freak over this book.
A punny, dense, eclectic, raunchy, filthy, swinging rhumba of a novel. I can't recommend it highly enough.
When people say a book is laugh-out-loud funny, they generally don't mean it, but lovers of wordplay and who have even a vague understanding of mid-20th Century North American popular culture will freak over this book.
A punny, dense, eclectic, raunchy, filthy, swinging rhumba of a novel. I can't recommend it highly enough.
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