DNF ( )

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Daniel José Older - The Book of Lost Saints: A slow start with a confusing narrator, but overall an engaging portrayal of Cuba and America, especially in the 60s. #cursorybookreviews #cursoryreviews ( )

The Book of Lost Saints
Author: Daniel Jose Older
Publisher: Imprint / Macmillan Publishing Group
Publishing Date: 2019
Pgs: 325
Dewey: F OLD
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Marisol was a revolutionary in Cuba.

Marisol vanished during the Cuban Revolution, disappearing with hardly a trace. Now, shaped by atrocities long-forgotten, her tenacious spirit visits her nephew, Ramón, in modern-day New Jersey. Her hope: that her presence will prompt him to unearth their painful family history.

Ramón launches a haphazard investigation into the story of his ancestor, unaware of the forces driving him on his search. Along the way, he falls in love, faces a run-in with a murderous gangster, and uncovers the lives of the lost saints who helped Marisol during her imprisonment.

The Book of Lost Saints by Daniel José Older is a haunting meditation on family, forgiveness, and the violent struggle to be free.

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Genre:
Hispanic American Literature
Fiction
Ghost
Haunted
Cuba
Political Fiction
Family Drama

Why this book:
I will read anything and everything that I can find from Older.
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Favorite Character:
Marisol and Ramon.

Least Favorite Character:
Guitierrez Sr. The old man is a scumbag. He knew things and let the family hang, the family that he was supposed to care about.

Favorite Quote:
Older can make images come alive pretty well. “On Wednesdays and Fridays, this basement club has an old Cha Cha Cha and dancing cats play and the viejitas come out and swing around the dance floor a couple of times, looking like they all crawled out of Colon Cemetery and have until midnight to hurry back into their graves or they'll turn to dust.”

Hmm Moments:
Roughly halfway through and I'm still not sure what this book is about. The ghost of Marisol is looking for something, something that Guitierez and Nilda are involved in.

WTF Moments:
Did Nilda report her older sister and her younger sister and get them both killed? No, not both of them. And, there are extreme extenuating circumstances, but it’s easy to get swept away in the emotion and flow of the story.

The fall of the Teatro was inevitable. Cuba in that era and this, especially an underground gay rights concert in Havana, I mean, inevitably, the secret and the not-so-secret policia were going to kick in the doors. It’s who they are. It’s where they were. And it's horrible.

The Sigh:
So there it is. Hope that's not the Crux of the story? It explains how Nilda is today but it doesn't explain why she was the way she was back then, middle child syndrome, I guess.

Juxtaposition:
The way Older writes about Ramon’s big concert in the Teatro in Cuba, it's how I feel about his writing. He keeps a good rhythm, deep rhythm, and then stops, and then a lone saxophone cries in over the top, and stops, and, sometimes, it plays all the way through, and, sometimes, it doesn't, and then the rhythm comes back, and a back beat drops in, and it's just awesome.

The Unexpected:
Guess I never knew about the live broadcast executions on TV in post-revolution Cuba. Horrible. Barbaric. A sense of “you bastards have already won,” WITF were they doing? Ruling through terror, trying to keep a second revolution from sweeping away their first. And to hold the yanquis at bay.

Predictability/Non-Predictability:
I didn’t see the ending coming at all. Wonderful.

Movies and Television:
Absolutely, this could be an awesome movie, television, telenovella mini-series.

Soundtrack:
The soundtrack is Ramon DJing in our imaginations.
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Pacing:
Great pacing.

Last Page Sound:
Holy s***! I was concerned with how the payoff was going to come in this book, and was afraid it was going to disappoint. But holy s*** that's good.

The best book I read all year.

Things I’d Like to See:
An open Cuba that America can actually see, I almost typed again, but what I should say is for the first time.

Author Assessment:
First writer I’ve run across in a long time that I want to read everything written by them.

Editorial Assessment:
Well done.
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Many great passages and I really love the protagonist, but it feels like an MFA project and it was. I will read anything Older writes, and this is an ambitious book. Unsurprisingly, the music passages are phenomenal. ( )

This is a fascinating mystery combined with a family saga. However, the novel's most interesting element is its unflinching look at the disillusionment and brutality of the failed Cuban counter-revolution, culminating in the Bay of Pigs debacle. Most Americans have little understanding of just how brutal this repression was and Older masterfully evokes it.

The narrator is a bit unusual. She is Marisol, an aunt who supposedly died while attempting a breakout from the Isle of Pines prison. She inhabits her nephew, Ramon, a popular DJ living in New Jersey. Her agenda is obscure to begin with, but eventually, we come to understand that she needs him to solve the mystery of her disappearance. This seems pointless since she is already dead. However, Older addresses this problem by giving her the need to punish her sister, who turned her in to the Cuban police. The narrative, with its attendant rapid shifts between revolutionary Cuba and New Jersey, can be unsettling. However, Older manages to control it well enough to build suspense and maintain interest. The outcome is surprising, but set up well enough to be believable and definitely satisfying. ( )