Scan barcode
A review by brianlokker
Miami by Joan Didion
3.0
When I read the opening sentence of Miami, I knew, or thought I knew, that I was going to love this book. “Havana niceties come to dust in Miami.” Spare, elegant, beautiful. I anticipated a romantic rendering of the somewhat exotic city that Didion accurately calls “a tropical capital.”
Alas, I was wrong. Few, if any, subsequent passages in the book compare to the stylish economy of this first sentence. Instead, Didion’s prose throughout the book primarily consists of lengthy, meandering sentences. Waiting for the period at the end of a sentence is sometimes as frustrating as waiting for Godot.
Maybe, though, Didion’s prolix style is appropriate to her subject, which is, or at least purports to be, the Cuban exile community in Miami. Many of the exiles focus on the possibility of their return to Cuba or the next action against Fidel Castro. As time passes—the book covers the period from Castro’s accession to power in 1959 to the latter years of the Reagan administration—their hopes are repeatedly dashed one way or another. Godot never does come.
Although this book educated me about aspects of the Cuban exile community in Miami and certain people in that community, I did not find Didion’s reporting to be particularly coherent. Towards the end, for example, the focus is far more on the Reagan administration’s anti-Communism than on Miami. Maybe it’s just that the book was not what I was expecting, but I was disappointed.
Alas, I was wrong. Few, if any, subsequent passages in the book compare to the stylish economy of this first sentence. Instead, Didion’s prose throughout the book primarily consists of lengthy, meandering sentences. Waiting for the period at the end of a sentence is sometimes as frustrating as waiting for Godot.
Maybe, though, Didion’s prolix style is appropriate to her subject, which is, or at least purports to be, the Cuban exile community in Miami. Many of the exiles focus on the possibility of their return to Cuba or the next action against Fidel Castro. As time passes—the book covers the period from Castro’s accession to power in 1959 to the latter years of the Reagan administration—their hopes are repeatedly dashed one way or another. Godot never does come.
Although this book educated me about aspects of the Cuban exile community in Miami and certain people in that community, I did not find Didion’s reporting to be particularly coherent. Towards the end, for example, the focus is far more on the Reagan administration’s anti-Communism than on Miami. Maybe it’s just that the book was not what I was expecting, but I was disappointed.