pickSet against the lead up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Desnoes's MC is a petite bourgeois whose furniture shop was nationalised during the revolution, who lives off his compensatory income, and who by turns supports and hates the social changes with a mix of disdain, arrogance, timidity and self-loathing. He's also misogynistic, sexually objectifies women and is completely self-centred. Desnoes is certainly making a socio-political comment, ⬇️
"Parquear la tiñosa: park the buzzard; leave an unsolved problem in someone else's hands."
I like this Cuban saying, and will be looking for an opportunity to tell somebody they can't park their buzzard with me! ??
"At the moment the U.S. embargo is effectively cutting off communication with Cuba."
- Introduction by Jack Gelba (March 1967)
"All those who loved me and kept bothering me right up to the last minute have left now."
- Edmundo Desnoes
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
"I'm all screwed up because I've looked into things more than is good for my own health; don't know why the hell I read so much. That's why I'm here all paralysed." ???
I haven't read a Cuban author yet, so though I'd remedy that with this recent acquisition #Cuba 🇨🇺
Written in 1967 and set at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the blurb on this 1971 edition says it's written in the form of the diary of a Havana businessman trying (and apparently failing) to come to terms with the political turmoil of his times.
Pretty short - 128 pages - sounds good🤞
Memories of Underdevelopment | 
3.5⭐ if you don't mind deeply flawed and rather unpleasant protagonists, whose existential suffering is, nonetheless, human and pitiful.
#BookmarkMatching (edited) 4mo