Description
Set up like a night at the Tropicana cabaret, this novel unfolds as a dazzling show introduced by a high-velocity emcee whose multilingual patter ignites the room. Through a fast-moving cast and a shifting web of voices, it captures the rhythms of Havana—its humor, slang, and *choteo*—as characters circle themes of art, desire, politics, and the restless search for meaning. Written in Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s celebrated, language-driven style, the book turns wordplay into a form of cultural survival, especially in the shadow of exile. With Suzanne Jill Levine’s translation bringing the music of the original into English, the result is a playful yet incisive portrait of how speech, memory, and performance can keep a city—and its people—alive.
Available Editions
paperback
Picador
Published Jan 1, 1980
494 pages
ISBN: 9780330261333
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Details
First Published
1967
Language
eng
Translation
From: spa
Content Warnings
No content warnings identified.