Down in Cuba

by Vincent Meis

Martin Vandenberg has a routine marriage and an unremarkable career as a professor of Latin American Studies at a small southern California college. To save himself from the ennui of mid life, he heads to Cuba on sabbatical where he will write a book about Cuban icon, José Martí. Soon after arriving in Cuba, he is led into the underground world of Havana’s Malecón where he comes face to face with his long-sheltered sexual feelings. Leo Flores is a young, unemployed artist adept at the Cuban game of love and survival. With both men longing to be free, though in very different ways, the things they do to help each other are also the things that can destroy them.

343 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 4, 2013

About the author

In the 1980s and 90s Vincent Meis published a number of pieces, mostly travel articles, but also a few poems and book reviews, in publications such as, The Advocate, LA Weekly, In Style, and Our World. His travels have inspired his five novels, all set at least partially in foreign countries: Eddie’s Desert Rose (2011), Tio Jorge (2012), and Down in Cuba (2013), Deluge (2016) and Four Calling Burds (2019). Tio Jorge received a Rainbow Award in the category of Bisexual Fiction in 2012. Down in Cuba received two Rainbow Awards in 2013. Recently stories have been published in two collections: WITH:New Gay Fiction and Best Gay Erotica 2015.

Reviews

[Trent · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the book (podcast to be true) was just ok. Not an original story but interesting turns. I think having someone else do the audio would have helped - his voice was very dull, his takes on what Cubans sound like when speaking was more like what Mexicans talk like. The various HIV angles really didn't gel. The two fast forwards really didn't make sense - especially as an audiobook. and a Marti scholar who visits Cuba many times makes no reference to Marti's work - especially his love poetry - just does not make sense. It was entertaining on some level but this idea that Cuba has been closed off to the world - when its only been blockaded by the USA (not the world) - just shows USA arrogance (and this is both the plus and minus of this book).

[Sergei · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author captures interesting glimpses of Cuba, and Leo is a compelling character, but the narrator's complete failure to understand him leaves one wondering if the author himself understands his own character (or are they one and the same?). And the narrator's clingy and controlling behavior is hard to take and strikes the reader as hypocritical, given what he is putting his own family through.

[willowdog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atmospheric novel illustrating the sexconomics of Cuba in which an illegal visit, and one night on the Malecon, changes the life of a married man. A little far fetched, but interesting portrayal of life of gay and bisexual men in Cuba. Have no idea if any of it is true to life.

[Elisa Rolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

2013 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)