Telex from Cuba: A Novel Summary and Reviews

Telex from Cuba: A Novel
by Rachel Kushner

Telex from Cuba: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Rachel Kushner
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-07-01
ISBN: 141656103X
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Scribner

Book Reviews of Telex from Cuba: A Novel

Book Review: Not great, but ok...
Summary: 3 Stars

I like reading material, fiction or non, about pre Castro Cuba. It was a hell of a place to grow up in and a worse place to be stuck when it all goes wrong. Batista was a scum sucking money grubbing corrupt scoundrel and this book relates it well. A family comes of age on a sugar cane plantation where the local politics runs high while everyone is looking over their shoulder at a growing dictatorship. This book was written in a style that frankly I usually have a hard time following along with. I finally tossed it about two thirds the way through because I kept finding my self flipping back and forth between the front and the back of the book to connect the dots. It jumps chronologically all over the place, the names and who is related to who gets a bit hard to track. Kind of like a Tom Clancy novel. Two or three stories eventually merging into one. Eventually. Itsoon all comes together in the latter part of the book but in the meantime, don't forget what you read 50 pages earlier. Take notes if you wish. It may help.... Life and culture of the Cuban people from that era seem to be portrayed well and with accuracy, based on other books I've read about the country during its transitions of the 50's. But what is clear throughout, is that Cuba was a time bomb ready to go off and did it ever. This book follows a family, its business and the adaptation to a lifestyle that was in constant change. This is a good read, but not my kind of book. By habit, I always find my self challenging accuracy of fiction writing about a real life period. The author, with some real life experiences to back it all up, relates Cuba as it looked to the locals in the 1950's. Not the sanitized version that the U.S. government gave us while backing the Batista regime.

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