Vital Signs

by Pedro De-Jesús, Dick Cluster (Translator)

Winner of Cuba’s prestigious Premio Carpentier, this collection of eight inventive stories explores the pursuit of love and meaning in contemporary Cuba. One story takes you into a world of art and the marketplace, another into divination and the numbers racket, another into cooking and S&M. These characters inhabit a real country full of contradictions and compulsions, far from our stereotyped images of nightclubs, beards, beaches and American cars. They are survivors, brought to us by a narrator who is sympathetic yet ironic, incisive yet serene.

Lucid marginality, the contradiction and curse of such clarity at odds with our surroundings: from the fog of a chaotic world Pedro de Jesús, ever watchful, draws out characters as if plucking them from a shipwreck. Vital Signs shows off the mature work of one of the most unmistakable voices in recent Cuban fiction.
—José Manuel Prieto, author of Rex and Encyclopedia of a Life in Russia

Pedro de Jesús’s stories trace the vital, disobedient forces that animate us beyond the constraints of the authoritative and the normative: our intellect, our imagination, our erotics. This careful, attentive translation allows de Jesus’ uniquely Cuban voice and vision to live on, naked and seductive and compelling, speaking directly to fortunate readers beyond Cuba, and beyond Spanish.
—Ricardo Ortíz, Georgetown University, author of Cultural Erotics in Cuban America

Vital Signs is an extraordinary and fascinating work that offers both an example of Pedro de Jesús’ creativity and a window into the imagination of the Cuban people. De Jesús’s subtleties have been masterfully translated into English by another artist, Dick Cluster. The stories will inspire any sophisticated mind, and the flavor of everyday Cuban speech and idiosyncrasies is also on display.
—Emilio Bejel, author of Gay Cuban Nation and José Martí: Images of Memory and Mourning

Raunchy, sublime, always compelling, the stories of Pedro de Jesús capture the essence of Cuban literature of the absurd. I am reminded of Calvert Casey and Virgilio Piñera, but Pedro de Jesús forges his own path. Dick Cluster, master translator, follows de Jesús, turning his words into magical, fabulous English.
—Pablo Medina, author of Cubop City Blues, and co-translator, with Mark Statman, of Poet in New York.

120 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

FYI: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review on here.

This is a book which, to be quite honest, it is highly unlikely i would have read, had i not been sent the ARC. I mean, i do not often read short story collections, and when i do, they are not often works in translation, and i'd go so far as to say that, to my knowledge, i've never read anything by a Cuban author, period.

But, i'm so glad that i did wind up serendipitously reading this book because i really enjoyed it. The translator seems to have put a great deal of thought into the craftsmanship of the language in his translation, because I feel like the works are permeated with a very identifiable and strong voice in their telling. I have never been to Cuba and am unlikely to ever go, but yet i was struck by how sympathetic, empathetic, and familiar i found much of the content of this book. Whether it was in the emotions or social situations or even the occasionally familiar musical or literary reference, i found myself frequently thinking that the characters and stories were people and events i have known and witnessed, in whatever variation they might exist within my own culture.

I think the book might be best summed up though by saying that the story which really stuck with me most vividly involved protracted public sex at a dinner party between a transwoman named Poison Queen and a guy called Yucca Stalk, described in graphic detail while the chef/host was literally churning butter. And if that sounds repellant to you, you probably won't want to pick up this book, but if that sounds intriguing, brilliant, hilarious, or even sexy, then you better run right out and get this damn thing.

Four stars instead of five though because IMO it should have had at least three more stories to it. I really just want books to be at least 150 pages. Is that so wrong?

[Jeffrey C. Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

My critical review appears in TRANSLATION REVIEW, vol. 91. In brief, however, De Jesús adds an intriguing voice to Cuban literature. Although it may sound cliché, his believable images offer us safe passage to a Havana (and other areas of Cuba) and allows us to witness a dark and sordid world that may surprise the reader.

As with all of his translations, Cluster does a masterful job to deliver an authentic text that holds close to the original all the while delivering an equally artistic (second) original.

[Ed Friedel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured Vital Signs, my first foray into the world of Cuban literature. Was blown away by the beauty of his writing and also by the unexpected frankness. De Jesus is an exceptional craftsman with a very compelling, original style. "Partying at the Maitre's House," was one of the funniest and most outrageous stories I've ever read. Highly recommended. My congrats to the translator.

[World Literature Today]

This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the May 2015 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...

[Kirsten Keefe]

Travel-inspired reading, not for the faint of heart. I don't think I would recommend this to anyone I know.