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Télex de Cuba
À la fin des années 1950, à Cuba, un petit nombre d’exilés américains, aveugles à la misère alentour, règne en maîtres absolus. C’est le cas de la famille Sites, exploitants de canne à sucre. Peu préoccupés par la guérilla contre le gouvernement de Batista que mènent Fidèl et Raúl Castro, les Sites sentent cependant souffler le vent de l’histoire le jour où leur fils Del rejoint les rebelles. Mais ils sont loin de réaliser que c’est à la fin de leur monde qu’ils sont en train d’assister.
477 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 2008
491 people are currently reading
6549 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Kushner
47 books2,649 followersRachel Kushner is the bestselling author of three novels: the Booker Prize- and NBCC Award–shortlisted The Mars Room; The Flamethrowers, a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times top ten book of 2013; and Telex from Cuba, a finalist for the National Book Award. She has been awarded prizes and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her novels are translated into 26 languages. She lives in Los Angeles and wants you to know that if you're reading this and curious about Rachel, whatever is unique and noteworthy in her biography that you might want to find out about is in her new book, The Hard Crowd, which will be published in April 2021. An excerpt of it appeared in the New Yorker here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20....
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October 2, 2019
Privilege: A Theory Inspired by Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner has done an outstanding job, presenting an informed, intriguing, concise but nuanced explanation for the Cuban Revolution in a highly accomplished work of fiction. Her story, although it references all of these, doesn’t focus on politics, or ideology, or personalities. The dominant theme is privilege and how it manifests itself in its practice and in its demise. And like most good literature, the importance of this theme and the implicit analysis of it goes far beyond the specifics of Cuba and the United Fruit Company’s involvement in the country. Her story speaks for itself; but I would like to pay it a tribute by suggesting a more general interpretation.
Privilege is a form of power that requires a a particular kind of community in which to be exercised. Privilege exists in a world which is defined by explicit social and economic commitments among identifiable individuals. In turn, the privileged community must exist within a larger society which does not share its privileges. Although the privileged community may act benignly, even charitably, toward the rest of its surrounding society, its loyalty is always to itself. Thus, the meaning of privilege only becomes clear when there is a conflict between the interests of the privileged community and society. Community members will always act in the interests of fellow members. This is the operational definition of privilege.
Employees of multinational corporations are members of a privileged community. The degree of privilege enjoyed depends largely upon the importance of the company involved, not to the society in which it operates but rather to the government of that society which acts effectively as a business partner. This relationship between the multinational and the government may be obscured by the complex technical details of regulatory and other legal arrangements, but these are the substance of the contract negotiated between the two parties. And implicit in this contract is the degree of privilege enjoyed by multinational employees.
The existence of privileged corporate communities is universal. They exist in socialist as well as capitalist countries, in social democracies and dictatorships, in religious as well as secular societies. In this sense at least the world is corporate. It is organised and managed by privileged communities which are in more or less continuous negotiation with national governments. For a variety of reasons - continuity of leadership, commercial incentive, the availability of legal and technical skills, the reliability of personal progression, among others - the corporate privileged corporate community has a permanent advantage in all negotiations with government.
The members of the privileged community rarely see themselves as privileged. They may perceive that their role in society is, say, one of increasing commercial efficiency or technological innovation (as in modern America) or of bringing the infrastructure of civilisation to less developed societies (as in the now-defunct British Empire), or one of promoting what is, to them, a manifestly superior culture (as with many current Chinese companies). Regardless of the diversity of self-image adopted by members of the privileged community, however, their common factor is the dedication to the interests of the community, to which they look for approval and reward.
Given its inherent negotiating superiority and internal stability, the only external requirement for the success of the privileged community is the reciprocal stability of the governmental system with which it negotiates. It is the system, not the individuals or the ideological commitments of parties or factions, which is critical. Everything remains negotiable as long as the system remains intact. In this, the interests of the privileged community and the government are exactly coincident. Consequently they will join forces whenever necessary to ensure that the ‘rules of the game’ remain unchanged. This can easily degenerate into overt corruption but need not for the arrangement to work ‘profitably’ for both parties.
This situation involving the interests of the government and the privileged community is both the primary obstacle to radical governmental action, and the primary stimulus to revolutionary upheaval. The American and French Revolutions, the various European civil conflicts of the mid-nineteenth century, indeed the American Civil War, among others are commonplace examples of the phenomenon. When the bond between privileged communities and governments is inadequate to any longer control the rest of society, revolution becomes inevitable. Governmental systems collapse and privileged communities disperse, to be replaced by a new system and a new privileged community. As one literary revolutionary, Kurt Vonnegut, was fond of saying: “And so it goes.”
Rachel Kushner has done an outstanding job, presenting an informed, intriguing, concise but nuanced explanation for the Cuban Revolution in a highly accomplished work of fiction. Her story, although it references all of these, doesn’t focus on politics, or ideology, or personalities. The dominant theme is privilege and how it manifests itself in its practice and in its demise. And like most good literature, the importance of this theme and the implicit analysis of it goes far beyond the specifics of Cuba and the United Fruit Company’s involvement in the country. Her story speaks for itself; but I would like to pay it a tribute by suggesting a more general interpretation.
Privilege is a form of power that requires a a particular kind of community in which to be exercised. Privilege exists in a world which is defined by explicit social and economic commitments among identifiable individuals. In turn, the privileged community must exist within a larger society which does not share its privileges. Although the privileged community may act benignly, even charitably, toward the rest of its surrounding society, its loyalty is always to itself. Thus, the meaning of privilege only becomes clear when there is a conflict between the interests of the privileged community and society. Community members will always act in the interests of fellow members. This is the operational definition of privilege.
Employees of multinational corporations are members of a privileged community. The degree of privilege enjoyed depends largely upon the importance of the company involved, not to the society in which it operates but rather to the government of that society which acts effectively as a business partner. This relationship between the multinational and the government may be obscured by the complex technical details of regulatory and other legal arrangements, but these are the substance of the contract negotiated between the two parties. And implicit in this contract is the degree of privilege enjoyed by multinational employees.
The existence of privileged corporate communities is universal. They exist in socialist as well as capitalist countries, in social democracies and dictatorships, in religious as well as secular societies. In this sense at least the world is corporate. It is organised and managed by privileged communities which are in more or less continuous negotiation with national governments. For a variety of reasons - continuity of leadership, commercial incentive, the availability of legal and technical skills, the reliability of personal progression, among others - the corporate privileged corporate community has a permanent advantage in all negotiations with government.
The members of the privileged community rarely see themselves as privileged. They may perceive that their role in society is, say, one of increasing commercial efficiency or technological innovation (as in modern America) or of bringing the infrastructure of civilisation to less developed societies (as in the now-defunct British Empire), or one of promoting what is, to them, a manifestly superior culture (as with many current Chinese companies). Regardless of the diversity of self-image adopted by members of the privileged community, however, their common factor is the dedication to the interests of the community, to which they look for approval and reward.
Given its inherent negotiating superiority and internal stability, the only external requirement for the success of the privileged community is the reciprocal stability of the governmental system with which it negotiates. It is the system, not the individuals or the ideological commitments of parties or factions, which is critical. Everything remains negotiable as long as the system remains intact. In this, the interests of the privileged community and the government are exactly coincident. Consequently they will join forces whenever necessary to ensure that the ‘rules of the game’ remain unchanged. This can easily degenerate into overt corruption but need not for the arrangement to work ‘profitably’ for both parties.
This situation involving the interests of the government and the privileged community is both the primary obstacle to radical governmental action, and the primary stimulus to revolutionary upheaval. The American and French Revolutions, the various European civil conflicts of the mid-nineteenth century, indeed the American Civil War, among others are commonplace examples of the phenomenon. When the bond between privileged communities and governments is inadequate to any longer control the rest of society, revolution becomes inevitable. Governmental systems collapse and privileged communities disperse, to be replaced by a new system and a new privileged community. As one literary revolutionary, Kurt Vonnegut, was fond of saying: “And so it goes.”
September 10, 2022
I really loved the sound of Kushner's The Flamethrowers, believing, after lots of hype, that it could just be one of those great novels of the 21st century, only for it to somewhat disappoint. But, for some of the ideas, and the sheer ambition put into it, along with the fact that as a person, from the few interviews I've seen, I do like Kushner, and thought I'd turn to her debut novel next time around.
Telex from Cuba is equally ambitious - I believe six years in the making and various trips to Cuba along the way - and for me was the more engaging and better novel of the two.
I'd say, as debut novels go, It's probably one of the most impressive I've read. Certainly one of the most multi-layered. I can't recall reading anything - whether fiction or non-fiction - of Cuba around the time of the 50s, with the political turmoil, Castro, the Cuban sugar economy and more, with my overall knowledge of this period just being the basics. So, my interest was heightened, and I really did find much to like about this, and how Kushner put real life figures - even a drunken Hemingway gets a cameo in a bar, which I thought was nicely done - along side the many fictional ones. There is no singular central character here but rather many. Adults and children, all vivid and richly detailed and, more importantly, wholly believable, flaws and all. It's also worth mentioning the tropical landscape, which is very much a character itself. There were times when I could almost feel myself building up a sweat, especially when the fires were raging across the cane fields, and also - only scene of passion I can think of off the top of my head - the moment a couple of characters decide to hide behind a pool hall under the blistering mid-day sun and have sex on a bed of dried pine needles. Talk about building up a thirst!
The narrative generally switches back and forth between various American families in the Oriente province working for the United Fruit Company and nickel mine, including the affluent Stites family, and the Lederers, whose young red-headed daughter Everly, along with the Stites' son KC give it in parts a sort of coming-of-age feel, along with chapters about the Castro brothers rebelling up in the hills, and also the strange relationship - if you could it that - between the Zazou dancer Rachel K and a mysterious Frenchman with a dark past, who we would learn joined the Waffen-SS years before.
This is a very very busy novel, with lots to say and lots of big themes explored, including innocence, privilege, injustice, ignorance, love, and on the whole I felt it was all handled very astutely. The children get just as much of a voice as the adults, which I liked, so we get the lives from different viewpoints, classes, and age groups. My review is only really skimming stones on the surface, as there is so much to delve into, but I'll finish by just saying that I did consider giving it the five star treatment, but for fact that the Rachel K angle of the story just didn't have enough narrative for me. As it was her, and the French Nazi La Mazière, that intrigued me the most.
Clearly written with a lot of passion - it's almost like a love letter to Cuba itself.
July 18, 2009
It took me a very long time to get through this book. Normally, if I am struggling this much, I will move on; I'm not one to force myself through books, life is too short and there's too much to read. But I kept on with this, because I had a sense that Kushner had a particular vision for this -- something very different from what I, as a writer, would try to do; and I wanted to find out what it was, and how she was going to achieve it.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about the novel's structure and form, for a reader, is that there is no protagonist. It seems to me that Kushner's main character is a certain time and place; a world, not a person. I've read many novels that shift in point of view and yet still provide the reader with a single voice that dominates, even just slightly, to guide the reader through. Delillo's Underworld, for example; or Toni Morrison's A Mercy. In those instances, the character who speaks in first-person is usually the central character.
In the case of Telex, the first-person narrator, KC Stites, is not at all the most compelling or dominant character. His I think is the weakest and least convincing voice; and he is the least interesting character. This is probably a central reason for why I found it hard to connect with the story. This world of Cuba-on-the-verge-of-revolution that Kushner is rendering is so complex, textured, tentacled; I think she really needed an anchoring voice amidst the many many voices she portrays here. She seems to not have been able to decide between KC Stites and Everly Lederer, whose voice starts and ends the novel. I think the book would have worked better if she'd committed to Everly -- an odd young girl at the time of the revolution who has a quirky curiosity and an interesting way of seeing things -- as the central voice.
But this world she gives us is indeed fascinating. And the novel is smarter than I am, which is another reason I kept with it. On the sentence level, Kushner is masterful. And the sheer ambition of the book is very, very impressive. I have a sense that this book is probably a must-read 5-star choice if Castro/20th Century Cuban history is of interest to begin with; but for the general reader, a rough entry.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about the novel's structure and form, for a reader, is that there is no protagonist. It seems to me that Kushner's main character is a certain time and place; a world, not a person. I've read many novels that shift in point of view and yet still provide the reader with a single voice that dominates, even just slightly, to guide the reader through. Delillo's Underworld, for example; or Toni Morrison's A Mercy. In those instances, the character who speaks in first-person is usually the central character.
In the case of Telex, the first-person narrator, KC Stites, is not at all the most compelling or dominant character. His I think is the weakest and least convincing voice; and he is the least interesting character. This is probably a central reason for why I found it hard to connect with the story. This world of Cuba-on-the-verge-of-revolution that Kushner is rendering is so complex, textured, tentacled; I think she really needed an anchoring voice amidst the many many voices she portrays here. She seems to not have been able to decide between KC Stites and Everly Lederer, whose voice starts and ends the novel. I think the book would have worked better if she'd committed to Everly -- an odd young girl at the time of the revolution who has a quirky curiosity and an interesting way of seeing things -- as the central voice.
But this world she gives us is indeed fascinating. And the novel is smarter than I am, which is another reason I kept with it. On the sentence level, Kushner is masterful. And the sheer ambition of the book is very, very impressive. I have a sense that this book is probably a must-read 5-star choice if Castro/20th Century Cuban history is of interest to begin with; but for the general reader, a rough entry.
August 16, 2017
I wanted to read this one after enjoying The Flamethrowers last year. This one is very different - an impressively detailed recreation of life in Cuba in the 1950s as the revolution was brewing.
It tells the stories of an odd mixture of characters, mostly American colonists. The most compelling voices are the children. Inevitably the book is a little uneven, but is well worth reading and an intriguing choice of subject for a first novel.
It tells the stories of an odd mixture of characters, mostly American colonists. The most compelling voices are the children. Inevitably the book is a little uneven, but is well worth reading and an intriguing choice of subject for a first novel.
July 5, 2018
I enjoyed reading about the 'drama' of the American families living in Cuba during the 1950's.
I especially enjoyed the children.
3.5 rating -- (the Political parts of the book did not 'flow' as much for me as the 'personal-relationships' parts of the book did).
I especially enjoyed the children.
3.5 rating -- (the Political parts of the book did not 'flow' as much for me as the 'personal-relationships' parts of the book did).
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September 10, 2019Pearl Ruled (p8)
Dynaflow is a brand of transmission that Buick developed. The car itself was a Buick Roadmaster. If you don't get details such as this right, I lose my sense that you're getting things important to the story, things invisible to me, correct; that means I get the sense that your novel's world is built on misunderstandings and faulty assumptions.
Fiction is made up. It's not history. A detail, a grace note like a thirteen-year-old boy telling the reader that his dad was getting out the Buick, is the world-building that deepens the experience of reading a novel. Unlike speculative fiction, authors can not wave their hands and say "it's my world, so that's how it is." This is January 1958, in Preston (now Guatemala), Cuba; a real place, in a time many now alive remember. Take care to research details or please don't deploy them. Getting something that your point-of-view character is absolutely sure to know *cold*—he's being set up as a bog-standard teen boy and, in 1958 in the US imperial zone, that meant he knew about cars or was...funny—wrong is a signal to my overbooked eyes that this isn't the read for me.
Daddy swore out loud and rushed to the garage where Hilton kept the company limousine, a shiny black Buick. We had two of them—Dynaflows, with the chromed, oval-shaped ventiports along the front fenders.
Dynaflow is a brand of transmission that Buick developed. The car itself was a Buick Roadmaster. If you don't get details such as this right, I lose my sense that you're getting things important to the story, things invisible to me, correct; that means I get the sense that your novel's world is built on misunderstandings and faulty assumptions.
Fiction is made up. It's not history. A detail, a grace note like a thirteen-year-old boy telling the reader that his dad was getting out the Buick, is the world-building that deepens the experience of reading a novel. Unlike speculative fiction, authors can not wave their hands and say "it's my world, so that's how it is." This is January 1958, in Preston (now Guatemala), Cuba; a real place, in a time many now alive remember. Take care to research details or please don't deploy them. Getting something that your point-of-view character is absolutely sure to know *cold*—he's being set up as a bog-standard teen boy and, in 1958 in the US imperial zone, that meant he knew about cars or was...funny—wrong is a signal to my overbooked eyes that this isn't the read for me.
November 21, 2024
Животът и историите на предреволюционна Куба, предадени през призмата на живеещите там американци и то предимно през погледа на децата им. Основата на повествованието е реалностите в градовете на две компании - Юнайтед Ф��утс (днес Чикита) и на тази, управляваща мината за никел.
Сносно и грамотно написан роман, интересно е да се прочете, но няма хомогенна история, която да го избута нагоре достатъчно, за да отиде където се е прицелил.
За първи път в този роман срещам намеци за прикрита хомосексуалност на Кастро, не се наемам да отсъдя, дали има нещо вярно в това. Със сигурност обаче е звяр и масов убиец, което говори за дълбоки психологически проблеми... Една неразкрита и подтискана хомосексуалност спокойно би могла да е причина за превръщането му в чудовище.
Описан е народ, опиянен от замяната на един диктатор с друг, но положението на обикновенните хора е все така сложно, a живота в бедност и лишения остава почти непроменен. Както и разслоението в обществто, пришълците хаитяни и ямайци са и до днес негласно втора категория хора в социалистическия рай, където всички трябва уж да са равни...
Цитат:
"Знае, че съблазняването е тресавище от образи, маски, отрицания. Какво можеш да знаеш за някого с точност, още по-малко за непознат, който те привлича?"
Сносно и грамотно написан роман, интересно е да се прочете, но няма хомогенна история, която да го избута нагоре достатъчно, за да отиде където се е прицелил.
За първи път в този роман срещам намеци за прикрита хомосексуалност на Кастро, не се наемам да отсъдя, дали има нещо вярно в това. Със сигурност обаче е звяр и масов убиец, което говори за дълбоки психологически проблеми... Една неразкрита и подтискана хомосексуалност спокойно би могла да е причина за превръщането му в чудовище.
Описан е народ, опиянен от замяната на един диктатор с друг, но положението на обикновенните хора е все така сложно, a живота в бедност и лишения остава почти непроменен. Както и разслоението в обществто, пришълците хаитяни и ямайци са и до днес негласно втора категория хора в социалистическия рай, където всички трябва уж да са равни...
Цитат:
"Знае, че съблазняването е тресавище от образи, маски, отрицания. Какво можеш да знаеш за някого с точност, още по-малко за непознат, който те привлича?"
December 31, 2022
I told him that I hated caviar, and Daddy said it wasn't about taste, it was about having things that other people couldn't have, and there was a certain burden in that.
Violeta Casal announced that Fidel had ordered his own family's cane burned first because they, too, were exploitative landowners. I guess you couldn't call him a hypocrite.
Well, that was disappointing from Kushner: this was her first novel, set amongst mostly American businessmen running massive US fruit/sugar and mining corporations in Cuba with their bored and alcoholic wives doing the social circuit. On the margins are Fidel and Raul Castro set to overturn the Batista regime, with a side-plot of the enigmatic Rachel K., a showgirl, and the arms dealer who desires her.
It could have been so good supported by detailed research - but this kind of traditional historical novel doesn't seem a good match for Kushner's skills as a writer and the whole thing feels dry and wandering. It's a far distance from the evocations of speed which open her The Flamethrowers or the intimacy and intention behind her breakout The Mars Room.
Too many characters, too much distance, all the exciting stuff happens off-stage or is told to us via 'messenger speeches' - the way Kushner regroups from this to bring off her second novel is probably the thing that impressed me most.
September 20, 2008
This was well written book. It was a page turner for the first half, but then came to a screeching halt by the second half. I felt it was boring and anti-climactic.
However, it was neat to read about this time period, and I have never read ANYTHING about the Cuban revolution. Although it is none of my business, I wonder if the insinuations about Raul and Fidel's sexuality are true.
However, it was neat to read about this time period, and I have never read ANYTHING about the Cuban revolution. Although it is none of my business, I wonder if the insinuations about Raul and Fidel's sexuality are true.
December 9, 2024
CRITIQUE:
Multiple Sources
The title of this richly rewarding novel highlights some of the ambiguity that snakes through its narrative.
It's supposedly a telex from someone or some place. A telex is a communique, a method of communication, even if it's sent by an outmoded form of technology that was common in the middle of the last century.
The fact that it's sent "from Cuba" suggests that it's come from one place (Cuba), whether or not it's come from multiple sources.
The narrator is sometimes, in some chapters, one person, Kimball C. (K.C.) Stites, who at the time of the principal events is 13 or 14.
Other chapters are written in the third person.
Collectively, these narratives come from multiple places, presumably in Cuba, even if K.C. lives in Tampa, Florida at the time he's writing.
On the other hand, you could argue that the Cuba of the title is a person, rather than a place. K.C. writes:
Thus, even though K.C. only writes one of three narratives, the novel as a whole might be construed as his communique to us.
Multiple Narratives
K.C. tells us about the Stites family. His father, Malcolm, is in charge of the United Fruit Company in Cuba in 1952. He's regarded by the Cuban people and rebels as "[public] enemy number one".
The second narrative concerns the relationship between a French supplier of arms to the rebels (Christian de La Maziere, who is also a former member of the German S.S.) and a burlesque dancer named Rachel K. (who describes herself as a "zazou dancer"): (1)
Rachel K. herself -
De La Maziere is not the only customer who is attracted to Rachel K. There are others like the former president (Prio), the recently instated president (Batista), Malcolm Stites (K.C.'s father), and the rebel Castro brothers.
The third narrative is constructed around teenaged Everly Lederer and her family, who are also linked to the United Fruit Company community:
Cutting Cuban sugar cane
American Colonialism
Malcolm Stites and his male peer group are the vehicles through which American capitalism pursues its colonialist agenda.
They become the target of communist rebels, who resent their accumulation of vast quantities of arable land, and their exploitation of Cuban labour (which even the Americans acknowledge - "the fact is we went down there and we took").
At the beginning of the novel, the rebels start fires in the sugar cane fields, as a precursor to full-blown revolution.
In contrast to her husband, K.C.'s mother is more liberal in temperament. His brother, Del (who joined the rebels at age 17), once said that:
A Circumstantial Chronicle of Events
Rachel Kushner's novel negotiates a passage between the colonialism imposed by American corporations on the third world, and the impact on the families of American executives and staff (not to mention the Cubans) with sensitivity and style, but without undue sentimentality.
It does so with a uniquely literary narrative, rather than with a plot or story that documents sequential action. (2) As De La Maziere says to Rachel K., after she undertakes to tell him her life story:
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Rachel K. also appears in the third story in Rachel Kushner's first collection of stories.
(2) The atmosphere of this novel reminds me most of Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet".
WINE DARK VERSE:
Caribbean Sea [Haiku]
(In the words of Rachel
Kushner)
Like an eye, it both
Reflects and refracts the sky
At which it gazes.
SOUNDTRACK:
Multiple Sources
The title of this richly rewarding novel highlights some of the ambiguity that snakes through its narrative.
It's supposedly a telex from someone or some place. A telex is a communique, a method of communication, even if it's sent by an outmoded form of technology that was common in the middle of the last century.
The fact that it's sent "from Cuba" suggests that it's come from one place (Cuba), whether or not it's come from multiple sources.
The narrator is sometimes, in some chapters, one person, Kimball C. (K.C.) Stites, who at the time of the principal events is 13 or 14.
Other chapters are written in the third person.
Collectively, these narratives come from multiple places, presumably in Cuba, even if K.C. lives in Tampa, Florida at the time he's writing.
On the other hand, you could argue that the Cuba of the title is a person, rather than a place. K.C. writes:
"Later, when I went to military academy, I was on the boxing team and everyone called me Cuba, Cuba Stites."
Thus, even though K.C. only writes one of three narratives, the novel as a whole might be construed as his communique to us.
Multiple Narratives
K.C. tells us about the Stites family. His father, Malcolm, is in charge of the United Fruit Company in Cuba in 1952. He's regarded by the Cuban people and rebels as "[public] enemy number one".
The second narrative concerns the relationship between a French supplier of arms to the rebels (Christian de La Maziere, who is also a former member of the German S.S.) and a burlesque dancer named Rachel K. (who describes herself as a "zazou dancer"): (1)
"The Frenchman remembers zazou. It was a jazz thing during the war. Girls in chunky heels and fishnets, with dark lipstick and parasols. Or maybe it was berets - he can't recall. Boys in zoot suits, an unseemly glisten of salad oil in their hair. They were bohemians who struck poses near the outdoor tables at the Café de Flore, begging cigarettes and slurping the soup people left in the bottom of their bowls. The point of it was more than just poverty. It was a form of protest. But by the time the zazou were being rounded up by German patrols, he was far away from Paris. Marching waist-deep into a cold apocalypse with a panzerfaust over his shoulder."
Rachel K. herself -
"had a narrow face, dark eyes, the full lips and large teeth of a Manouche Gypsy or a German Jew. Zazou - of all things! The framing made her seem oddly knowing, despite her blunt and stupid and perfect flesh..."
"Whatever she is or isn't, she looks like a liar and he likes liars. He imagines there is someone for whom honesty is a potent seduction, but he is not that sentimental someone. Seduction, he knows, is a slew of projections, disguises, denials. What can you claim to accurately know about anyone, much less a stranger to whom you're attracted? And yet you can claim, accurately, that a person is evasive and that their evasions interest you."
De La Maziere is not the only customer who is attracted to Rachel K. There are others like the former president (Prio), the recently instated president (Batista), Malcolm Stites (K.C.'s father), and the rebel Castro brothers.
The third narrative is constructed around teenaged Everly Lederer and her family, who are also linked to the United Fruit Company community:
"Her mother and father seemed to hate people for being rich, and yet they wanted to be rich themselves. Money was always a problem. That's why they were going to Cuba, where her father would have a higher salary and be a boss."
Cutting Cuban sugar cane
American Colonialism
Malcolm Stites and his male peer group are the vehicles through which American capitalism pursues its colonialist agenda.
They become the target of communist rebels, who resent their accumulation of vast quantities of arable land, and their exploitation of Cuban labour (which even the Americans acknowledge - "the fact is we went down there and we took").
At the beginning of the novel, the rebels start fires in the sugar cane fields, as a precursor to full-blown revolution.
In contrast to her husband, K.C.'s mother is more liberal in temperament. His brother, Del (who joined the rebels at age 17), once said that:
"Mother's sympathy for people, without any sympathy for what caused their circumstances, was not real sympathy but sentimentality."
A Circumstantial Chronicle of Events
Rachel Kushner's novel negotiates a passage between the colonialism imposed by American corporations on the third world, and the impact on the families of American executives and staff (not to mention the Cubans) with sensitivity and style, but without undue sentimentality.
It does so with a uniquely literary narrative, rather than with a plot or story that documents sequential action. (2) As De La Maziere says to Rachel K., after she undertakes to tell him her life story:
"You've told me circumstances. Not story."
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Rachel K. also appears in the third story in Rachel Kushner's first collection of stories.
(2) The atmosphere of this novel reminds me most of Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet".
WINE DARK VERSE:
Caribbean Sea [Haiku]
(In the words of Rachel
Kushner)
Like an eye, it both
Reflects and refracts the sky
At which it gazes.
SOUNDTRACK:
August 28, 2008
This book was mesmerizing- beautifully written and truly evocative of the time and place of the story. Kushner paints an indelible picture of life in the United Fruit company's outpost in Cuba, her words creating a vivid portrait of a way of life in collapse. The characters are wonderfully drawn and Cuba itself acts as a character in the novel.
Knowing that Kushner's mother lived through this tumultuous time in Cuba lends even greater reality to the narrative. I picked this book up and could barely stand to put it down. The book highlights the inequalities that helped lead to the revolution, and the sadness of people on both sides when it didn't all work out as planned. I highly recommend this book.
Knowing that Kushner's mother lived through this tumultuous time in Cuba lends even greater reality to the narrative. I picked this book up and could barely stand to put it down. The book highlights the inequalities that helped lead to the revolution, and the sadness of people on both sides when it didn't all work out as planned. I highly recommend this book.
June 3, 2016
With language as lush as the tropics itself, Kushner unfolds a political revolution and an embarrassing blotch on American history, described as temptingly as a bountiful buffet spread or a botanical garden run amok.
Beginning the book through the eyes of children is a brilliant stroke. The author shows their naïve view of Cuba like someone born into a cult who doesn’t know anything of the outside world. Then we see American families moving to Cuba to improve their place in the class hierarchy, not satisfied with degradation of middle management back in the States. We are shown the class system at work in Cuba – from the lowest echelon: the near-indentured slaves, the Jamaicans, working the cane fields. To the Cubans working the mine, the servants working in the homes of the white Americans, the Cuban landowners, the white American rednecks who oversee the cane-crushers in the field, to the nickel mine managers and on up to the Executives at the American-owned United Fruit Company.
The fruit company doesn’t grow fruit anymore, just sugar cane, at the expense of the natives’ back-breaking labor. The Executives live in expansive houses with wrap-around porches and plush gardens. They have servants for gardening, cooking, chauffeuring, bartending, haggling in the market, and hosing down the house’s daily coat of Nickel factory residue. Father runs the Company with an iron fist – or rather he hires an iron fist – and Mother is a “liberal,” sympathetic to the poor individuals she comes across on her horseback riding excursions, but not necessarily of the plight of the cane-crushers in general. She wouldn’t speak ill of The Company. One tow-headed brother runs off to join the rebels, the other stays and is Mother’s golden boy.
The revolutionary action picks up when we meet a French agitator, who will sell guns to all three of the warring sides, just to make sure his trip to Cuba is worth his while. Maziere has been around the world, been with every kind of woman and seen every kind of war. He’s a fascinating character – an antagonist that’s well-drawn. But the author indulges him with a little too much musing and slows the plot down. While his motives for joining the SS are fascinating, her historical research gets a little showy. We know what’s coming – Revolt! Kidnapping! Strafe! – and he’s a little too preoccupied with an aloof dancer from a Havana cabaret. And speaking of, why is she named Rachel K? Some of the American wives in TELEX FROM CUBA are beautiful, but it’s the faux zazou dancer Rachel K that gets the lustiest descriptions, the supplest breasts, and the attention of every important man in Cuba, it seems. It feels like narcissism on the part of the author.
If the end seems unsatisfying, I guess it’s because there’s been no real resolution to the American relationship with Cuba. Life went on. Still, the characters, the scenes set at beachside barbecues and the American country club, the parties where Cuban presidents and the American businessmen mingle in finery without a hint of guilt, builds such a vivid picture. Reading this book is like watching a gorgeous movie, and then watching the film catch fire and burn up, broadcast on the big screen. When it fades to white, you want to start it again from the beginning, just to watch it burn.
Beginning the book through the eyes of children is a brilliant stroke. The author shows their naïve view of Cuba like someone born into a cult who doesn’t know anything of the outside world. Then we see American families moving to Cuba to improve their place in the class hierarchy, not satisfied with degradation of middle management back in the States. We are shown the class system at work in Cuba – from the lowest echelon: the near-indentured slaves, the Jamaicans, working the cane fields. To the Cubans working the mine, the servants working in the homes of the white Americans, the Cuban landowners, the white American rednecks who oversee the cane-crushers in the field, to the nickel mine managers and on up to the Executives at the American-owned United Fruit Company.
The fruit company doesn’t grow fruit anymore, just sugar cane, at the expense of the natives’ back-breaking labor. The Executives live in expansive houses with wrap-around porches and plush gardens. They have servants for gardening, cooking, chauffeuring, bartending, haggling in the market, and hosing down the house’s daily coat of Nickel factory residue. Father runs the Company with an iron fist – or rather he hires an iron fist – and Mother is a “liberal,” sympathetic to the poor individuals she comes across on her horseback riding excursions, but not necessarily of the plight of the cane-crushers in general. She wouldn’t speak ill of The Company. One tow-headed brother runs off to join the rebels, the other stays and is Mother’s golden boy.
The revolutionary action picks up when we meet a French agitator, who will sell guns to all three of the warring sides, just to make sure his trip to Cuba is worth his while. Maziere has been around the world, been with every kind of woman and seen every kind of war. He’s a fascinating character – an antagonist that’s well-drawn. But the author indulges him with a little too much musing and slows the plot down. While his motives for joining the SS are fascinating, her historical research gets a little showy. We know what’s coming – Revolt! Kidnapping! Strafe! – and he’s a little too preoccupied with an aloof dancer from a Havana cabaret. And speaking of, why is she named Rachel K? Some of the American wives in TELEX FROM CUBA are beautiful, but it’s the faux zazou dancer Rachel K that gets the lustiest descriptions, the supplest breasts, and the attention of every important man in Cuba, it seems. It feels like narcissism on the part of the author.
If the end seems unsatisfying, I guess it’s because there’s been no real resolution to the American relationship with Cuba. Life went on. Still, the characters, the scenes set at beachside barbecues and the American country club, the parties where Cuban presidents and the American businessmen mingle in finery without a hint of guilt, builds such a vivid picture. Reading this book is like watching a gorgeous movie, and then watching the film catch fire and burn up, broadcast on the big screen. When it fades to white, you want to start it again from the beginning, just to watch it burn.
September 15, 2013
I recently read Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers and fell in love. I have to admit that if I just saw her literary debut, Telex from Cuba on the shelf without reading The Flamethrowers, I probably wouldn't have been interested in reading it. There's no good reason for that other than too many books and too little time, but I am glad that I loved The Flamethrowers so much that I gave this a try.
It's just not as good.
Which is strange to say because I'd say these books are almost identical in so many ways. Kushner is a fantastic writer and I can only be eager to see what she does with that writing as time goes by. For a debut novel, Telex from Cuba is pretty impressive, both in style and in the story itself. Kushner is a young writer, yet she was able to capture life in Cuba in the 1950s so convincingly that if I didn't know better, I'd think she maybe had these experiences herself.
Usually I'm pretty good at pinpointing what it is in a book that doesn't work for me, but unfortunately this time I'm having a hard time. I think overall this smelled too much like The Flamethrowers that I don't feel it was strong enough as its own book to be amazing. Maybe if I had read this one first I'd feel differently.
I had difficulty with perspective in this novel, understanding whose point of view I was reading and their relationship to the other characters. There were a few different storylines running simultaneously, and bringing them all together in a nice bundle at the end felt a bit forced and tenuous. The strongest of all the stories is the one of Everly Lederer and her sisters, and that's the one that really should have made up this book, that was its strength.
Still, this was good on it's own; it just didn't have the same impact on me that her second novel did. It's all about experiences and I could relate to The Flamethrowers in a way that I wasn't able to connect to this one.
It's just not as good.
Which is strange to say because I'd say these books are almost identical in so many ways. Kushner is a fantastic writer and I can only be eager to see what she does with that writing as time goes by. For a debut novel, Telex from Cuba is pretty impressive, both in style and in the story itself. Kushner is a young writer, yet she was able to capture life in Cuba in the 1950s so convincingly that if I didn't know better, I'd think she maybe had these experiences herself.
Usually I'm pretty good at pinpointing what it is in a book that doesn't work for me, but unfortunately this time I'm having a hard time. I think overall this smelled too much like The Flamethrowers that I don't feel it was strong enough as its own book to be amazing. Maybe if I had read this one first I'd feel differently.
I had difficulty with perspective in this novel, understanding whose point of view I was reading and their relationship to the other characters. There were a few different storylines running simultaneously, and bringing them all together in a nice bundle at the end felt a bit forced and tenuous. The strongest of all the stories is the one of Everly Lederer and her sisters, and that's the one that really should have made up this book, that was its strength.
Still, this was good on it's own; it just didn't have the same impact on me that her second novel did. It's all about experiences and I could relate to The Flamethrowers in a way that I wasn't able to connect to this one.
March 26, 2009
This was a book club pick from the finalists for the National Book Award. I really can't imagine why. While the descriptions of a pre-Castro Cuba were good and the story of the American families interesting, the whole mess with the dancer and her ties to the underworld were a major distraction. I still would like to know what point she was making in having the dancer's name be Rachel K. An author doesn't give her character her own name without some sort of reason and I could never find out what it was.
January 8, 2019
Ще се абстрахирам от съответствието между романната и действителната историческа реалност. По този начин мога с чиста съвест да кажа, че като стил книгата има наистина много достойнства. Има и някои много точни попадения. В общи линии приятно четиво, подходящо за почивка, но същевременно с добри послания.
February 22, 2022
I so admire Rachel Kushner's writing in her novels the Flamethrowers and the Mars Room, I was very much looking forward to reading this, her first novel about the coming of the Cuban Revolution. It's an accomplished book which tells its story from multiple points of view--mostly focusing on the sons and daughters of American families in Cuba working for United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) and the nickel mine which was a joint American-Cuban concern--but also the perspective of an exotic dancer at Havana's Tokyo Club, and a French soldier-of-fortune who had been with the Waffen SS for a time, working all sides of the political situation as the Castro brothers consolidate their following against the corrupt presidents, first Prieto, then Batista.
The style is solid and rich, every verb and metaphor well crafted, the personalities unique and varied, the strata of social life in the American colony in particular well examined. We get the family of the head manager of the United Fruit, whose son KC is a major point of view character--living the aristocratic life on 'The Avenue' in the town completely owned by the the company; the lives of the midlevel managers, one of whose little daughter provides an observant second POV--their life in and out of the boozy no-Cubans country club and their stark racist treatment of the black workers brought from Haiti to cut the cane and often robbed of their wages at the end of the season; the working-class white families brought over from Louisiana to 'manage' the workers. Add to the mix the elder son of the top manager, who has disappeared to join the guerrillas in the mountains; the young dancer who is having liaisons with men across these political lines; the housewives and the love affairs and the loneliness, even a pet monkey who commits suicide as the political situation finally comes to a head.
In a certain way Telex from Cuba is a more sophisticated-seeming book than Kushner's later novels, written with a clarity and ease you don't note in the later books, because it's less voice-driven, despite the multiple POVs. A more conventional book, her crunchy literary stylings in the later books not yet in evidence--but she certainly proves herself a glorious writer the first book out of the gate.
The style is solid and rich, every verb and metaphor well crafted, the personalities unique and varied, the strata of social life in the American colony in particular well examined. We get the family of the head manager of the United Fruit, whose son KC is a major point of view character--living the aristocratic life on 'The Avenue' in the town completely owned by the the company; the lives of the midlevel managers, one of whose little daughter provides an observant second POV--their life in and out of the boozy no-Cubans country club and their stark racist treatment of the black workers brought from Haiti to cut the cane and often robbed of their wages at the end of the season; the working-class white families brought over from Louisiana to 'manage' the workers. Add to the mix the elder son of the top manager, who has disappeared to join the guerrillas in the mountains; the young dancer who is having liaisons with men across these political lines; the housewives and the love affairs and the loneliness, even a pet monkey who commits suicide as the political situation finally comes to a head.
In a certain way Telex from Cuba is a more sophisticated-seeming book than Kushner's later novels, written with a clarity and ease you don't note in the later books, because it's less voice-driven, despite the multiple POVs. A more conventional book, her crunchy literary stylings in the later books not yet in evidence--but she certainly proves herself a glorious writer the first book out of the gate.
August 2, 2014
I was going to start this review by saying that this novel gives the lie to anyone who says you can't teach people to write.
Of course you can teach people to write. You can teach people to drive, which is a lot harder than writing. You can teach them to build bridges across impossible spaces, put up those massive, bristling skyscrapers in New York and Shanghai, get oil from the desert, make rockets and missiles and sell them to countries worse off than you so they can almost but not quite destroy each other. You can teach people to enslave entire populations and justify it with plausible rhetoric that makes it look like you are a philanthropist and benefactor.
So of course you can teach people to write.
It's just sentences. One after another.
We can't all write beautifully, I'll admit. Even after a lot of lessons at top schools like Berkeley and Columbia, where Rachel K learned to write, it takes a lot of patience and practice to write something like this:
The references to the rain and the moon are fairly standard. You'll find paragraphs starting that way in every half-decent detective, romance or horror story. Rachel gives them a bit more intensity than many writers. There is some close observation there. Maybe the description of the moon is even a bit laboured.
But I admire enormously the second paragraph. I admire it and it gives me great pleasure. I can read it again and again.
She could have said something like "He assumed she was still there, still in her zazou getup, still exactly as her remembered her from six months earlier."
But no, instead we get a vividly visual and tactile memory of what exactly it is that La Maziere remembers, her painted-on fishnet stockings, rendered with that wonderfully evocative word "smearable", her soft thighs, susceptible to his "handprints". What an image!
There are many paragraphs like this in the novel, which give it a compelling forward momentum. I not only go back and saunter but I also race onward, eager for the next delicious frisson, which is at once sensual, intellectual and literary.
The narrative sections depicting La Maziere are probably my favourite ones in the novel. I love the way Rachel is so cool and wise in showing us his brutish, predatory and often childish responses to women. As a narrator, she is aloof. But the insights she gives us into the way people think are astonishingly intimate. She does this without irony, or an irony so faint and empathic that it is ambivalent if it is there at all.
These insights lingered long in my imagination. Reading this novel was like being plunged into lots of different lives and experiencing strange situations with the freshness and immediacy of a child. It was revelatory and inspiring. It was healing. It made me happy.
I was going to start this review this way but then I read through the comments on Goodreads and I thought, "Oh no, I'm wrong! Rachel can't write, after all. She has failed to please so many readers, many of whom struggled to finish the book."
I learned of a new literary genre: "LOB - left on board".
Catastrophe!
Perhaps you can't teach writing, then. Those world-leading writing schools have failed us and failed Rachel K.
What to do? Bin my review? Re-think my literary touchstones? Doubt my judgement? Throw in the towel?
I don't know. Writing is hard. Writing is really hard. Teaching people to write must be even harder. All right, then. It's impossible.
Of course you can teach people to write. You can teach people to drive, which is a lot harder than writing. You can teach them to build bridges across impossible spaces, put up those massive, bristling skyscrapers in New York and Shanghai, get oil from the desert, make rockets and missiles and sell them to countries worse off than you so they can almost but not quite destroy each other. You can teach people to enslave entire populations and justify it with plausible rhetoric that makes it look like you are a philanthropist and benefactor.
So of course you can teach people to write.
It's just sentences. One after another.
We can't all write beautifully, I'll admit. Even after a lot of lessons at top schools like Berkeley and Columbia, where Rachel K learned to write, it takes a lot of patience and practice to write something like this:
The rain let up, and wind was vacuuming out the last low, ragged clouds as La Maziere continued along the Malecon, looking back periodically to be sure no one was following him. The moon appeared, glowing like a quartered orange section that had been ever so lightly sucked, its flat edge thinned and translucent.
He turned and headed up La Rampa, in the direction of the Tokio. He assumed she was still there, still in her zazou getup, her legs painted in prison chain-link, as smearable as when he'd last left his handprints on her soft and unathletic thighs, six months earlier.
The references to the rain and the moon are fairly standard. You'll find paragraphs starting that way in every half-decent detective, romance or horror story. Rachel gives them a bit more intensity than many writers. There is some close observation there. Maybe the description of the moon is even a bit laboured.
But I admire enormously the second paragraph. I admire it and it gives me great pleasure. I can read it again and again.
She could have said something like "He assumed she was still there, still in her zazou getup, still exactly as her remembered her from six months earlier."
But no, instead we get a vividly visual and tactile memory of what exactly it is that La Maziere remembers, her painted-on fishnet stockings, rendered with that wonderfully evocative word "smearable", her soft thighs, susceptible to his "handprints". What an image!
There are many paragraphs like this in the novel, which give it a compelling forward momentum. I not only go back and saunter but I also race onward, eager for the next delicious frisson, which is at once sensual, intellectual and literary.
The narrative sections depicting La Maziere are probably my favourite ones in the novel. I love the way Rachel is so cool and wise in showing us his brutish, predatory and often childish responses to women. As a narrator, she is aloof. But the insights she gives us into the way people think are astonishingly intimate. She does this without irony, or an irony so faint and empathic that it is ambivalent if it is there at all.
La Maziere doubted going to Japan would convince him that femininity was the art of walking in stilettos, that it had much to do with poise or surfaces, makeup and neck ribbons. Whatever female essence was, he had caught it only fleetingly, a thing women reflected when they were least aware. He couldn't name this quality but suspected it had something to do with invisibility, a remainder whose very definition was predicated on his inability to see it.
These insights lingered long in my imagination. Reading this novel was like being plunged into lots of different lives and experiencing strange situations with the freshness and immediacy of a child. It was revelatory and inspiring. It was healing. It made me happy.
I was going to start this review this way but then I read through the comments on Goodreads and I thought, "Oh no, I'm wrong! Rachel can't write, after all. She has failed to please so many readers, many of whom struggled to finish the book."
I learned of a new literary genre: "LOB - left on board".
Catastrophe!
Perhaps you can't teach writing, then. Those world-leading writing schools have failed us and failed Rachel K.
What to do? Bin my review? Re-think my literary touchstones? Doubt my judgement? Throw in the towel?
I don't know. Writing is hard. Writing is really hard. Teaching people to write must be even harder. All right, then. It's impossible.
September 13, 2012
Told mainly through the reminisces of K.C. Stites, son of the manager of United Fruit Company and Everly Lederer, daughter of the new manager of the US government owned nickel mining operation, this is a very lyrically written novel of privilege, proverty and politics in Cuba in the late 1950's. The author gives an excellent overview of the activities of the Batista and Prio governments of Cuba and the rise of the rebels in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic - not as a history lesson, but to set the climate of the time.
The children's reminisces of the enclave of Preston tell a haunting tale of a false paradise, where the American men search for and exercise power, the woman create a small social hiearchy they would never have in the States and the children enjoy a life of both freedom and privilege. When the rebel brothers Fidel and Raul begin their efforts to take back the sugar plantation, everyone learns how fragile and separate their small world is.
Rambling at times, and with odd inserts that seemingly add little to the story, this novel wasn't about the end (which we all know), but more about a lost time and place. Which was just as well, as I felt a little lost at the end myself.
The children's reminisces of the enclave of Preston tell a haunting tale of a false paradise, where the American men search for and exercise power, the woman create a small social hiearchy they would never have in the States and the children enjoy a life of both freedom and privilege. When the rebel brothers Fidel and Raul begin their efforts to take back the sugar plantation, everyone learns how fragile and separate their small world is.
Rambling at times, and with odd inserts that seemingly add little to the story, this novel wasn't about the end (which we all know), but more about a lost time and place. Which was just as well, as I felt a little lost at the end myself.
July 27, 2010
Have you ever read a book that you knew was technically very good but you still didn't like it very much? That was the experience I had while reading this book. Kushner's prose is stunning, and the backdrop of Cuba and the sugar plantations just before the revolution is one I've never read about before. Yet the book just left me cold.
I've thought hard about this and the only thing I can come up with is that the story seemed like it was written in service of telling a history lesson, rather than using a historical event as a backdrop for storytelling. There was a lot of detail given to political and business machinations that would inevitably make my eyelids droop. I think the most telling issue is the fact that I've been reading this book for nearly two weeks, and it's only about 300 pages long. That doesn't sound like much but for someone like me, who can finish a book like that in a few days if I am really into it, it seemed like an eternity. I finished it only out of a sense of obligation, not because I cared about the characters or how the story was going to finish.
All that said, I hope my review does not dissuade others from reading this book, as they very well may enjoy it. I just didn't like it very much, which happens. No big deal.
I've thought hard about this and the only thing I can come up with is that the story seemed like it was written in service of telling a history lesson, rather than using a historical event as a backdrop for storytelling. There was a lot of detail given to political and business machinations that would inevitably make my eyelids droop. I think the most telling issue is the fact that I've been reading this book for nearly two weeks, and it's only about 300 pages long. That doesn't sound like much but for someone like me, who can finish a book like that in a few days if I am really into it, it seemed like an eternity. I finished it only out of a sense of obligation, not because I cared about the characters or how the story was going to finish.
All that said, I hope my review does not dissuade others from reading this book, as they very well may enjoy it. I just didn't like it very much, which happens. No big deal.
October 1, 2013
Goodreads messes me up when I try to change edition in the midst of writing a review. I just lost my review for this -- second time I've had this sort of thing happen to me! Bah!
Anyway, not about to reconstruct entirely tonight, but this is a writer called to my attention by a Goodreads reader enthusiastic about her The Flamethrowers . Shortly thereafter, Telex became available as a special offer.
Kushner does a commendable job of bringing together a large cast of characters, each distinctly defined, although multitudinous enough to lose track of them, of expounding on historical fact and (political) perspective, and of providing lush description. A post-modern tone mixes fact and fiction to suggest the elusiveness of analyses and clear judgments of either people or events. Strikes me as an author to watch -- and to read.
The wiki entry for her has links to a number of published reviews of her work.
Anyway, not about to reconstruct entirely tonight, but this is a writer called to my attention by a Goodreads reader enthusiastic about her The Flamethrowers . Shortly thereafter, Telex became available as a special offer.
Kushner does a commendable job of bringing together a large cast of characters, each distinctly defined, although multitudinous enough to lose track of them, of expounding on historical fact and (political) perspective, and of providing lush description. A post-modern tone mixes fact and fiction to suggest the elusiveness of analyses and clear judgments of either people or events. Strikes me as an author to watch -- and to read.
The wiki entry for her has links to a number of published reviews of her work.
December 1, 2008
This was a fascinating fictional account of the events leading up to the overthrow of the Batista government by Fidel and Raul Castro, and the lives of working Americans in Cuba at that time. It provides a broad, even-handed perspective on the economic, cultural and political dimensions of the Cuban Revolution - plus a visceral sense of Cuban culture, geography and climate.
November 14, 2008
The Cuban revolution of the late 1950s as experienced by U.S. families living on the far eastern end of the island & managing U.S. corporate enterprises there--United Fruit's sugarcane operation & a nickel mine owned by the U.S. government. That is, the same people who are primly shocked at any other government's "socialistic" ownership of resources--this inconsistency isn't really taken up here, but many others are.
I wasn't really interested in the secondary Rachel/La Maziere relationship, though the way they feed off both sides of the growing Cuban conflict is fascinating. What I really enjoy is the child's-eye view of neocolonial life in the American colony. Here the story really shines.
I wasn't really interested in the secondary Rachel/La Maziere relationship, though the way they feed off both sides of the growing Cuban conflict is fascinating. What I really enjoy is the child's-eye view of neocolonial life in the American colony. Here the story really shines.
January 22, 2021
Picked this book up because I thought it would be interesting to read about Cuba in that time period. But meh didn't get a long with the book. Still want to read more books about this subject but would read by another author next time.
March 15, 2014
In Elmore Leonard's Cuba Libre, we learned a bit about the American takeover of Cuba under the pretext of saving its citizens from Spanish depredations (Sounds a little to me like the Russians saving the Ukrainians, but I guess that's another matter.) In Rachel Kushner's Telex From Cuba, we get a good look at the results of fifty-plus years of domination by United Fruit Company and other big American businesses.
The companies have built ersatz American suburbs in the environs of the cane fields and nickel mines and other exploitative operations. In these little towns, the company families try to live pretty much the way their American counterparts do, albeit with a host of servants and gardeners and other amenities afforded them by living among a poverty-stricken populace. I often felt that I was in the midst of Mad Men or the pages of one of those expose novels like Peyton Place, with all the drinking and wife swapping behind a facade of respectable morality. A sad and fake place.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island and around the world, people are plotting to toss the monopolies out. One dictator (Prio) has been ousted, the more famous Batista has taken over. The caribbean is rife with this sort of thing right now, with both the Dominican Republic and Haiti having undergone similar upheavals. We follow a French gentleman of fortune, who served the Nazi's in WWII, then is now playing the rebels in the hills against Batista as he trades arms and ammunition with both and attempts to simply end up on the winning side with a profit. He's in love with a whore who's doing the same thing, unbeknownst, of course.
Then, we have Fidel and Raul and their minions running around the hills, setting fire to cane fields, wooing the workers.
It's an exciting tale, full of history, and very educational as well as entertaining. Problem for me is that despite a lot of good writing:
She'd had a dream abut a woman who walked through a room wearing nothing, just a towel held up to her front. What a lovely way to assert yourself was her dream sentiment, watching the woman stride through the room, her backside bare.
Or speaking of mounted animal heads:
It was moribund ornamentation … but also funny. As if the animals were standing behind plywood sets at the fair, putting their heads through circular holes.
And an exquisite scene--as good as any I've read--about a man returning him after being held prisoner by the rebels, standing in his back yard watching and listening to his wife and family. Too long to quote hear, but top-notch.
Problem is, though, that Kushner gives us just too many characters. We don't really know, on a feeling level, whose book this is. We skip from one to another like a stone splashing across a pool, seldom staying in one place long enough to settle down and get acquainted. Not that every character isn't nicely drawn and interesting. There's just no one to whom to give our heart and hate.
There's a prologue and epilogue that preface and continue the story well beyond its natural boundaries. They provide little color and a great deal more superfluous detail.
I suppose, once again, I'm going to be in the minority on this one, but I wish someone had played Maxwell Perkins with her and just blue penciled about twenty-five per cent of Telex.
The companies have built ersatz American suburbs in the environs of the cane fields and nickel mines and other exploitative operations. In these little towns, the company families try to live pretty much the way their American counterparts do, albeit with a host of servants and gardeners and other amenities afforded them by living among a poverty-stricken populace. I often felt that I was in the midst of Mad Men or the pages of one of those expose novels like Peyton Place, with all the drinking and wife swapping behind a facade of respectable morality. A sad and fake place.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island and around the world, people are plotting to toss the monopolies out. One dictator (Prio) has been ousted, the more famous Batista has taken over. The caribbean is rife with this sort of thing right now, with both the Dominican Republic and Haiti having undergone similar upheavals. We follow a French gentleman of fortune, who served the Nazi's in WWII, then is now playing the rebels in the hills against Batista as he trades arms and ammunition with both and attempts to simply end up on the winning side with a profit. He's in love with a whore who's doing the same thing, unbeknownst, of course.
Then, we have Fidel and Raul and their minions running around the hills, setting fire to cane fields, wooing the workers.
It's an exciting tale, full of history, and very educational as well as entertaining. Problem for me is that despite a lot of good writing:
She'd had a dream abut a woman who walked through a room wearing nothing, just a towel held up to her front. What a lovely way to assert yourself was her dream sentiment, watching the woman stride through the room, her backside bare.
Or speaking of mounted animal heads:
It was moribund ornamentation … but also funny. As if the animals were standing behind plywood sets at the fair, putting their heads through circular holes.
And an exquisite scene--as good as any I've read--about a man returning him after being held prisoner by the rebels, standing in his back yard watching and listening to his wife and family. Too long to quote hear, but top-notch.
Problem is, though, that Kushner gives us just too many characters. We don't really know, on a feeling level, whose book this is. We skip from one to another like a stone splashing across a pool, seldom staying in one place long enough to settle down and get acquainted. Not that every character isn't nicely drawn and interesting. There's just no one to whom to give our heart and hate.
There's a prologue and epilogue that preface and continue the story well beyond its natural boundaries. They provide little color and a great deal more superfluous detail.
I suppose, once again, I'm going to be in the minority on this one, but I wish someone had played Maxwell Perkins with her and just blue penciled about twenty-five per cent of Telex.
January 19, 2019
Rachel Kushner draws a very plausible portrait of the life and concerns of Americans and other expats in Cuba just prior to the revolution. Also included are portraits of urban night life and rebel camps. There are glimpses of the canasta playing presidents and the everyday life of United Fruit managers.
These descriptions show incredible talent for a first time author. Kushner brings to life the events and how people got caught up in them. For instance, the Lederers arrive in Cuba for Mr. Lederer's new job with more interest in what they bought at Sears than Cuban politics. They are totally unaware that Batista had deposed Prio Socarras and never would have thought that from this there would be any ramifications for them.
There are lots of characters (as there are in real life) for the author to manage. Each shows him or herself through description and action. The people and their interactions with each other are the strength of the book. Another strength is showing how the people respond the big events of the day. While you never meet Del, you know his family, and through his caring mother you understand that this teenager thought he was helping the poor by joining the revolution. You understand the boredom and rejection in Charmaigne Mackey's life and how she fixated on Lito Gonzales, never considering the reality of their "relationship" from his perspective. The portrait of the Allains grows throughout the book. You understand them and their world, even more so when Hatch's crime is revealed. These and many others are wonderfully told from both the child's eye and the third person narrator's.
The mix of the first person and third person narration makes it harder for the reader to get oriented. This could have been a good technique, but with the number of characters and time line changes there needed to be more markers that a shift was occurring. Another weakness was rambling, examples being the Hemingway dialogs and the musings of La Maziere.
Unsolved mysteries surround Rachel K. Why does the author give Rachel K. her own name? Towards the end, and out of the blue she has a last name, dropped without explanation. There is some foreshadowing for this, but not enough to make it really fit.
The author ties other things up in the end, but just as in life, many answers are incomplete. The child narrator (now an adult) avoids meaningful discussion of these powerful events with his brother. Everly's trip to Cuba describes the current life of Willy, Pamela, Mr. Carrington and others. A phone call to an octogenarian provides a few tidbits. There are scrap books, photos and reference to news items.
While it needs some tightening up, this is amazing for a first novel.
These descriptions show incredible talent for a first time author. Kushner brings to life the events and how people got caught up in them. For instance, the Lederers arrive in Cuba for Mr. Lederer's new job with more interest in what they bought at Sears than Cuban politics. They are totally unaware that Batista had deposed Prio Socarras and never would have thought that from this there would be any ramifications for them.
There are lots of characters (as there are in real life) for the author to manage. Each shows him or herself through description and action. The people and their interactions with each other are the strength of the book. Another strength is showing how the people respond the big events of the day. While you never meet Del, you know his family, and through his caring mother you understand that this teenager thought he was helping the poor by joining the revolution. You understand the boredom and rejection in Charmaigne Mackey's life and how she fixated on Lito Gonzales, never considering the reality of their "relationship" from his perspective. The portrait of the Allains grows throughout the book. You understand them and their world, even more so when Hatch's crime is revealed. These and many others are wonderfully told from both the child's eye and the third person narrator's.
The mix of the first person and third person narration makes it harder for the reader to get oriented. This could have been a good technique, but with the number of characters and time line changes there needed to be more markers that a shift was occurring. Another weakness was rambling, examples being the Hemingway dialogs and the musings of La Maziere.
Unsolved mysteries surround Rachel K. Why does the author give Rachel K. her own name? Towards the end, and out of the blue she has a last name, dropped without explanation. There is some foreshadowing for this, but not enough to make it really fit.
The author ties other things up in the end, but just as in life, many answers are incomplete. The child narrator (now an adult) avoids meaningful discussion of these powerful events with his brother. Everly's trip to Cuba describes the current life of Willy, Pamela, Mr. Carrington and others. A phone call to an octogenarian provides a few tidbits. There are scrap books, photos and reference to news items.
While it needs some tightening up, this is amazing for a first novel.
August 12, 2019
לאורך ההיסטוריה האמריקאים אחזו בדעה שהם ברכה ותקווה גדולה לכל אותם עמים נחותים וחסרי קידמה. במסווה של נאורות וקידמה, שלט האימפריאליזם האמריקאי במשאבים ובכלכלה של מדינות נחשלות בהן הדמוקרטיה היתה מספיק רעועה בכדי לאפשר לאמריקאים לגזול את העם ולדכא אותו. את השליטה שלהם לרוב הם ביססו תוך יצירת הפליה ונקיטת הפרדה גזעית ולבסוף הם הותירו את המדינות האלה שסועות וללא דמוקרטיה.
האמריקאים, כמובן, לא מבינים מדוע כל אותם עמים שונאים אותם.
כך היה המקרה של קובה , בה במשך חצי מאה שלטו האמריקאים במפעלי הסוכר והניקל שהיו ענפי היצוא הריווחיים ביותר של המדינה, תוך דיכוי כלכלי של ילידי המקום, הפליה והפרדה גיזעית, נישול בני המקום וגזל זכויותהם בזמן שאותם נציגים של הממשל האמריקאי מפגינים את העושר והרווחה הכלכלית שלהם בלי שום התחשבות בעם המרוד שבקושי מתקיים. אני לא יודעת הם מתנהגים ככה מתוך בורות או מחוסר מודעות או פשוט מרוע שמונע משיקולים תועלתניים כלכליים. אבל המדיניות הזו הביאה אותם לעבר פי פחת בקובה (ולא רק בה).
הספר "טלקס מקובה" מתאר את אותה תקופה סוערת של התגבשות מחאה חברתית הקובנית שבסוף תוביל לעלייתו לשליטון של פידל קסטרו. הספר שמתאר את האירועים שקדמו למהפכה, מסופר אומנם מעיניו של נער, אבל מרכזו בדינמיקה החברתית בין הנשים האמריקאיות, המשועממות עד זרא, הגברים האמריקאים שמנהלים את העסקים וברוב אטימותם לא רואים לאן פני הדברים מועדות, בני המקום (הפועלים, בעלי עסקים וגם ישויות פוליטיות כאלה ואחרות) והילדים ששוברים את המרחק שלכאורה לא ניתן לגישור בעולם המבוגרים.
הספר כתוב היטב, הוא מרתק והוא מבוסס על אירועים אמיתיים ועל חומרים אוטוביוגרפים שנמצאו בעיזבון הוריה של המחברת.
הוא גם מצער במידה מסויימת לא מבוטלת כי הדברים היו צריכים להעשות אחרת ואז אולי קובה לא היתה במקום המאוד נמוך שהיא נמצאת בו היום.
ספר מומלץ מאוד שלא זכה בארץ לתהודה שמגיעה לו.
"טלקס מקובה", רייצ'ל קושנר
הוצאת ידיעות ספרים, 2010, 352 עמודים
תרגום קטיה בנוביץ'
האמריקאים, כמובן, לא מבינים מדוע כל אותם עמים שונאים אותם.
כך היה המקרה של קובה , בה במשך חצי מאה שלטו האמריקאים במפעלי הסוכר והניקל שהיו ענפי היצוא הריווחיים ביותר של המדינה, תוך דיכוי כלכלי של ילידי המקום, הפליה והפרדה גיזעית, נישול בני המקום וגזל זכויותהם בזמן שאותם נציגים של הממשל האמריקאי מפגינים את העושר והרווחה הכלכלית שלהם בלי שום התחשבות בעם המרוד שבקושי מתקיים. אני לא יודעת הם מתנהגים ככה מתוך בורות או מחוסר מודעות או פשוט מרוע שמונע משיקולים תועלתניים כלכליים. אבל המדיניות הזו הביאה אותם לעבר פי פחת בקובה (ולא רק בה).
הספר "טלקס מקובה" מתאר את אותה תקופה סוערת של התגבשות מחאה חברתית הקובנית שבסוף תוביל לעלייתו לשליטון של פידל קסטרו. הספר שמתאר את האירועים שקדמו למהפכה, מסופר אומנם מעיניו של נער, אבל מרכזו בדינמיקה החברתית בין הנשים האמריקאיות, המשועממות עד זרא, הגברים האמריקאים שמנהלים את העסקים וברוב אטימותם לא רואים לאן פני הדברים מועדות, בני המקום (הפועלים, בעלי עסקים וגם ישויות פוליטיות כאלה ואחרות) והילדים ששוברים את המרחק שלכאורה לא ניתן לגישור בעולם המבוגרים.
הספר כתוב היטב, הוא מרתק והוא מבוסס על אירועים אמיתיים ועל חומרים אוטוביוגרפים שנמצאו בעיזבון הוריה של המחברת.
הוא גם מצער במידה מסויימת לא מבוטלת כי הדברים היו צריכים להעשות אחרת ואז אולי קובה לא היתה במקום המאוד נמוך שהיא נמצאת בו היום.
ספר מומלץ מאוד שלא זכה בארץ לתהודה שמגיעה לו.
"טלקס מקובה", רייצ'ל קושנר
הוצאת ידיעות ספרים, 2010, 352 עמודים
תרגום קטיה בנוביץ'
Read
November 1, 2008Telex From Cuba
Rachel Kushner
Historical Fiction
322 pages
copyright: 2008
isbn: 1-4165-6103-x
RACHEL KUSHNER HAS WRITTEN AN ASTONISHINGLY wise, ambitious, and riveting novel set in the American community in Cuba during the years leading up to Castro's revolution—a place that was a paradise for a time and for a few. The first Novel to tell the story of the Americans who were driven out in 1958, this is a masterful debut.
Young Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites come of age in Oriente Province, where the Americans tend their own fiefdom—three hundred thousand acres of United Fruit Company sugarcane that surround their gated enclave. If the rural tropics are a child's dream-world, Everly and K.C. nevertheless have keen eyes for the indulgences and betrayals of grown-ups around them—the mordant drinking and illicit loves, the race hierarchies and violence.
In Havana, a thousand kilometers and a world away from the American colony, a caberet dancer meets a French agitator named Christian de La Maziθre, whose seductive demeanor can't mask his shameful past. Together they become enmeshed in the brewing political underground. When Fidel and Raϊl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains above the cane platation, torching the sugar and kidnapping a boat full of "yanqui" revelers, K.C. and Everly begin to discover the brutality that keeps the colony humming. If their parents manage to remain blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what is to come.
At the time, urgent news was conveyed by telex. Kushner's first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.
Rachel Kushner
Historical Fiction
322 pages
copyright: 2008
isbn: 1-4165-6103-x
RACHEL KUSHNER HAS WRITTEN AN ASTONISHINGLY wise, ambitious, and riveting novel set in the American community in Cuba during the years leading up to Castro's revolution—a place that was a paradise for a time and for a few. The first Novel to tell the story of the Americans who were driven out in 1958, this is a masterful debut.
Young Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites come of age in Oriente Province, where the Americans tend their own fiefdom—three hundred thousand acres of United Fruit Company sugarcane that surround their gated enclave. If the rural tropics are a child's dream-world, Everly and K.C. nevertheless have keen eyes for the indulgences and betrayals of grown-ups around them—the mordant drinking and illicit loves, the race hierarchies and violence.
In Havana, a thousand kilometers and a world away from the American colony, a caberet dancer meets a French agitator named Christian de La Maziθre, whose seductive demeanor can't mask his shameful past. Together they become enmeshed in the brewing political underground. When Fidel and Raϊl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains above the cane platation, torching the sugar and kidnapping a boat full of "yanqui" revelers, K.C. and Everly begin to discover the brutality that keeps the colony humming. If their parents manage to remain blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what is to come.
At the time, urgent news was conveyed by telex. Kushner's first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.
August 2, 2010
An interesting read. I was just young enough at the time of the Revolution to not really have been aware of its having happened until the Bay of Pigs, and I was more than happy to have the opportunity to read more, without its having to be an exacting history. This is a work of fiction, but fact and fiction is seamlessly interwoven.
Fidel and Raul Castro are figures at the margins. The white management is supposedly of the United Fruit Company which did exist, now Chiquita, and I feel certain that their wealthy lifestyle is accurately portrayed. One of the characters, La Mazierre, did exist, and his WWII background accurately given. His wikipedia article, however, does not include his post WWII activities as an arms dealer in the Carribean. So much for the facts.
Two of the central characters are children, their parents upper management at United Fruit. We are treated to their observations of the contradiction between their parents lavish lifestyle and the abject poverty of the Cuban people. They also observe the racism of the whites against everyone not white, but also the Cubans against the Haitians and anyone else not Cuban. Another fascinating, but minor, character is an exotic dancer in Havana who finds it worthwhile to paint her legs so that she appears to be wearing fishnet stockings.
This is a first novel, the writing style above average.
Fidel and Raul Castro are figures at the margins. The white management is supposedly of the United Fruit Company which did exist, now Chiquita, and I feel certain that their wealthy lifestyle is accurately portrayed. One of the characters, La Mazierre, did exist, and his WWII background accurately given. His wikipedia article, however, does not include his post WWII activities as an arms dealer in the Carribean. So much for the facts.
Two of the central characters are children, their parents upper management at United Fruit. We are treated to their observations of the contradiction between their parents lavish lifestyle and the abject poverty of the Cuban people. They also observe the racism of the whites against everyone not white, but also the Cubans against the Haitians and anyone else not Cuban. Another fascinating, but minor, character is an exotic dancer in Havana who finds it worthwhile to paint her legs so that she appears to be wearing fishnet stockings.
This is a first novel, the writing style above average.
March 6, 2023
This is one of those novels that sweeps through a historical event with no central protagonist and includes both characters integral to the event and simple witnesses to it. While reading it, I kept thinking of Ellroy’s American Tabloid. In this case, the birth of Castro’s Cuba, the author aims her flashlight primarily in a direction inspired by her family history. Its wide beam includes colonization and exploitation, childhood innocence and rebellion, agitation and revolution, racism, class, culture clash, and more.
It is that wide beam and copious research that also bring the book’s weaknesses. None of the characters reach the depth I like to see. Occasionally the research seems to drive the book.
Nevertheless a very impressive debut.
It is that wide beam and copious research that also bring the book’s weaknesses. None of the characters reach the depth I like to see. Occasionally the research seems to drive the book.
Nevertheless a very impressive debut.
August 20, 2017
„Телекс от Куба“ съчетава в себе си както характерни за модернизма стилови особености, така и постмодернистични намигвания. За Къшнър сякаш важи максимата на Гьоте: „Съжетът всеки вижда пред себе си, съдържанието намира само тоя, който има отношение към него, а формата остава тайна за мнозинството“. Хаотична и същевременно премислена до съвършенство, структурата на „Телекс от Куба“ може да откаже много от вас, но със сигурност романът би се отплатил пребогато на търпеливите читатели.
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