Telex from Cuba: A Novel

Rachel Kushner's very fine novel, Telex from Cuba, is a very rewarding read. It may not make it to the required reading list of classes of literature, but it should. She writes a fiction with the information of her family who lived in the time of the coupe of Batista to the revolution of Casto. Ms. Kushner has family insights into the people of the United Fruit company and what life was like for those employed by that company in bahia de nipe, Cuba. I loved the book and couldn't put it down. I'm a Spanish speaker and had Cuban friends at the University of Texas during the Castro takeover. The were from rich Cubano families and they wanted to plot to assassinate Batista. I was a part of their plan. This novel informed, entertained with an acid humor, and delighted me, You should read it. I'm ordering the new book by Rachel Kushner. And, I hope for more from her.

First, this novel is full of fascinating details about Cuba and the Americans working for United Fruit Co. and nickel mining in the last days before the revolution overthrowing Batista, ending American economic exploitation and the ascendence of Castro to power. Presumably, it's factual and well researched. Very timely considering the current changing US foreign policy regarding Cuba. Second, the writing is that of a poet - beautiful and evocative.I give only 4 stars because I found the story telling method to be distracting, some what confusing and slow. I kept wanting the story to move forward with more energy or direction, or tighten up. I kept reading because I liked the characters and I'm very interested in the subject; but I was never confident things would come together or actually lead to an ending. It's worth reading. I could see it transformed into the next prime time TV series ala Mad Men.

I liked Mars Room and think Kushner has a great eye for a good story and she is a very good writer. And I am a Cuba fanatic. I'm not sure if I have read too many Cuba book recently (Chanel Cleeton series, Dreaming in Cuban by Garcia..) but this one bored me. I couldn't grasp onto a character or story line that interested me beyond the setting in Cuba. I would recommend it for that reason, but not for the plot of the book or any of the characters really. It is unique to read about this time from the American expat point of view, and I may have to read it again later. I am going to try Flamethrowers. I like how Kushner tells very different stories differently.

I have absolutely loved my journey through this book. I thought I would not find another book about Cuba to be as brilliant as Carlos Erie's Waiting for Snow in Havana and Eduardo Santiago's Tomorrow They Will Kiss. But this one, although maybe not as brilliantly written, is a wonderful read. I read a review in The New York Times that suggested maybe Ms. Kushner was not necessarily always factual with her history of Cuba. That is something I certainly would not know having lived most of my life in the North where there is, on the whole, little interest in Cuban history. But for years I have lived in Key West and now Miami Beach--and I have grown very interested in Cuba, its history, and most especially the "take" on Cuba from those who write about it now. I lived in the fifties--in the North--so I related well to some of the characters from the United States who find themselves cast in a human drama of a large company owned and operated by a company in the United States. The characters--fictional and non-fictional--seem so real to me. What a great way to learn about Cuban history--the Revolution!

“Telex from Cuba” is a social/political novel focusing on the Americans who ran the US sugar and nickel concessions in Cuba in Oriente province, before and as the Castro revolution took place. Fortunately, it is more a social than a political novel, because Kushner does a better job with the social. Interestingly, the book begins with a prologue written in 3rd person from the point of view of the child Everly, then a chapter narrated by the child K.C., and ends symmetrically: a chapter narrated by K.C. and Everly’s epilogue again in 3rd person. K.C. is rather a dull person, while Everly is a wonderful character, the best part of the novel, but there are a whole ensemble of people brought to life. The novel has one of the two best party scenes that I have come across in novels, moving amongst the characters and their conversations, reflecting their culture and personalities (the other party scene begins “The Radiant Way” trilogy by Margaret Drabble). Without trying to characterize Everly, here are some quotes. At 8 years old: “If her parents ever did get rich, their old selves would hate their new selves. Though maybe it wouldn’t matter, because they would have forgotten their old selves, erased by their new selves, since self was self and there couldn’t be more than one in a single body.”; “If a person had a face like Scribbles (kind of like etch a sketch), would she be a brand-new person every time her face got erased and redrawn? Or would she only be tricking people into thinking she was new?”. At 11 years old: “Everly thought she might like D. L. Mazierre to come and agitate them, even if she didn’t know what was involved.” One of the American executives: “That’s what truth was. Establishing a truth in your mind, and declaring this truth to everyone else. If the truth he declared mirrored what he saw and felt inside, then it was true, period” (remind you of anyone?). Mrs. Mackey, a shy, socially and matrimonially repressed person who starts to change at the party and does what she knows she is not supposed to do: “It was in these timid forays that Mrs. Mackey felt the vague shape of her own self, as if her essence hid in the margins and could be felt only when these margins were crossed.”

El estilo de Rachel Kushner no es llamativo, mas bien se camufla detrás de la historia. Sin embargo, no se engañen, la voz de Kushner está en todo el texto y los personajes que trae a la vida están llenos de detalles que sólo las grandes novelas históricas pueden lograr.La empecé a leer sin ninguna expectativa, pero me sorprendió muy gratamente.

It’s a well written book that shows the Cuban Revolution from many perspectives but also Cuban and cultural life itself. It also shows a lot of history of Cuba that’s interesting to read about. I recommend.

Glück muss man haben. Zum Beispiel interessante Großeltern, die nie etwas weggeworfen, sondern immer alles sauber abgeheftet haben, dann hat man schon mal eine Menge Material für ein Buch.In den Jahren vor der Revolution war Rachel Kushners Großvater Manager in einer Nickelmine in Kuba; ihre Mutter verlebte dort den mit Sicherheit spannendsten Teil ihrer Kindheit. "Telex from Cuba" beäugt das postkolonialistische (das "post" könnte man fast in Gänsefüßchen setzen) Leben in den Tropen zum Teil aus Sicht der kleinen Everly, dem Alter Ego der Mutter, dazu aus Sicht von K. C., dem Sohn des Chefs der Zuckerfabrik auf der anderen Seite der Bucht, und - Revolutionen sind nicht immer jugendfrei - aus Sicht des einen oder anderen Erwachsenen.Während besagte Revolution eher von ihrer romantischen Pfadfinderseite präsentiert wird, sieht die Welt der Nickel- und Zucker-Expats schon ganz anders aus. Amerikanische Bosse befehligen kubanische Unterlinge, und den Großteil der Knochenarbeit erledigen de-facto-Sklaven aus Haiti, mit freundlicher, auf Gegenseitigkeit basierender Unterstützung durch den Emporkömmlings Batista. Und dazwischen ein mephistophelischer Waffenhändler mit SS-Vergangenheit und einer Schwäche für Burlesque-Tänzerinnen. Zum Glück findet immer irgendwo eine Party statt, auf der man die Wirklichkeit mit einem Glas in der Hand ausblenden kann. Rachel Kushner beschreibt einen einzigen, sechs Jahre dauernden Tanz auf dem Vulkan, und mittendrin die Kinder, die mehr von den Ungerechtigkeiten der Welt verstehen, als sie ahnen.

As much as I enjoy and appreciate the excellent writing of Kushner, I find it difficult to enter into or empathize with the characters (who seem to be one-dimensional). I lost interest quite quickly in the story because it seems to lack heart. Where is the heart, the pulse of the book? That said, I just dip into it from time to time just to read some well-written passages.

Telex from Cuba gives a fascinating and sympathetic insight into the lives and attitudes of mostly non-Cubans living in Cuba before and during the revolution.