What do you think?
Rate this book
The Cuban Club: Stories
A masterpiece of mood and setting, character and remembrance, The Cuban Club is Barry Gifford's ultimate coming-of-age story told as sixty-seven linked tales, a creation myth of the Fall as seen through the eyes of an innocent boy on the cusp of becoming an innocent man. Set in Chicago in the 1950s and early 1960s against the backdrop of small-time hoodlums in the Chicago mob and the girls and women attached to them, there is the nearness of heinous crimes, and the price to be paid for them. To Roy and his friends, these twists and tragedies drift by like curious flotsam. The tales themselves are koan-like, often ending in questions, with rarely a conclusion. The story that closes the book is in the form of a letter from Roy to his father four years after his father's death, but written as if he were still alive. Indeed, throughout The Cuban Club Roy is in some doubt whether divorce or even death really exists in a world where everything seems so alive and connected.
Barry Gifford has been writing his Roy stories on and off for over thirty years, and earlier Roy stories have been published in Wyoming , Memories from a Sinking Ship , and The Roy Stories . But it is in The Cuban Club that he brings the form he has created in these stories to its crystallization. Indeed, to find precedents for The Cuban Club , we must look not to other story collections, but to other creation myths—to Gilgamesh , or the Old Testament, or Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy. Roy's age here wends back and forth between six and nineteen and back to twelve. He sees with the eyes of a seer who doesn't seem to age, and knows not to judge the good or the bad in circumstances or people, or even to question why things are as they are, instead filled with the romance of the world teetering on catastrophe always, but abounding in saving graces.
Barry Gifford has been writing his Roy stories on and off for over thirty years, and earlier Roy stories have been published in Wyoming , Memories from a Sinking Ship , and The Roy Stories . But it is in The Cuban Club that he brings the form he has created in these stories to its crystallization. Indeed, to find precedents for The Cuban Club , we must look not to other story collections, but to other creation myths—to Gilgamesh , or the Old Testament, or Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy. Roy's age here wends back and forth between six and nineteen and back to twelve. He sees with the eyes of a seer who doesn't seem to age, and knows not to judge the good or the bad in circumstances or people, or even to question why things are as they are, instead filled with the romance of the world teetering on catastrophe always, but abounding in saving graces.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 24, 2017
4 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Barry Gifford
142 books205 followersBarry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 20, 2023
Barry Gifford is one of the greatest living American masters of the short story genre. The Cuban Club: Stories is one of several collections featuring the world as seen by Roy, a boy ranging in age from five to fifteen, whose father has died and whose mother has remarried (unsatisfactorily) several times. Most of the stories are set in Chicago around the 1950s, but some are set in Florida, Cuba, even Honduras.
I like not only Gifford's short stories but also his novels. I have not read any of his poems, but I am willing to bet I'd like them too.
The dust jacket photo of a feral-looking teenage girl in a skimpy tank top really gives of feeling of Roy's world, except for the fact that there is a palm tree in the background.
I like not only Gifford's short stories but also his novels. I have not read any of his poems, but I am willing to bet I'd like them too.
The dust jacket photo of a feral-looking teenage girl in a skimpy tank top really gives of feeling of Roy's world, except for the fact that there is a palm tree in the background.
February 23, 2022
Gifford sets his collection of coming of age stories is the supposedly post-war boom era of 1950s America, not quite either the good old days or the land of opportunity.
Gifford has explored the character Roy in a span of more than 30 years, in the books The Roy Stories and Memories from a Sinking Ship: A Novel, neither of which I have read yet. It must be a unique thing, to base so many stories predominantly on one character.
Roy is a sort of alter ego for Gifford, an sort of romaticised version of his own childhood. Roy's dad is / was an immigrant mobster who died when Roy was 12; his mother an ex-model who jets around the country, with Roy, living the good life. The 64 tales meander around Roy's childhood and adolescence with the shuffle button pushed, one time innocent, the other keen and street-smart, reminiscence with an equal share of the romantic and the tragic.
Despite the gritty and violent times, Gifford grasps the range of experiences in such a way that the reader is witnessing the formation of character; those key aspects of which, wanderlust, inquistion and connection, make the reader introspective, and answer for themselves the questions Roy poses throughout.
A favourable comparison is to the excellent Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life, which similarly does those things key to writing with a young narrative voice; it is authentic in capturing the boy's view of life, and yet that does not stand in the way of describing the adult's around him, and their behaviour, nor the mood of the time in which it is set, however dark that may be.
Gifford has explored the character Roy in a span of more than 30 years, in the books The Roy Stories and Memories from a Sinking Ship: A Novel, neither of which I have read yet. It must be a unique thing, to base so many stories predominantly on one character.
Roy is a sort of alter ego for Gifford, an sort of romaticised version of his own childhood. Roy's dad is / was an immigrant mobster who died when Roy was 12; his mother an ex-model who jets around the country, with Roy, living the good life. The 64 tales meander around Roy's childhood and adolescence with the shuffle button pushed, one time innocent, the other keen and street-smart, reminiscence with an equal share of the romantic and the tragic.
Despite the gritty and violent times, Gifford grasps the range of experiences in such a way that the reader is witnessing the formation of character; those key aspects of which, wanderlust, inquistion and connection, make the reader introspective, and answer for themselves the questions Roy poses throughout.
A favourable comparison is to the excellent Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life, which similarly does those things key to writing with a young narrative voice; it is authentic in capturing the boy's view of life, and yet that does not stand in the way of describing the adult's around him, and their behaviour, nor the mood of the time in which it is set, however dark that may be.
May 3, 2017
Can't think of a writer who has influenced me more. I'll have lots to say about this later.
November 7, 2017
Top notch short stories. So glad I’ve discovered Barry Gifford.
March 15, 2018
This book was on the "recommended read" shelf in our local library. I'm glad it was. I somehow don't know Barry Gifford's work. Living under a rock apparently. This is a collection of about 40 short stories with an average length of 4 or 5 pages, all about Roy and his family and friends. Roy is between 6 and 16. He is well spoken, curious, outgoing, accepting and unaffected by the relatively bad things that he witnesses, often first hand. All of the stories have a similar structure. Short. Quickly to the point. Descriptive, with long complicated sentences that I frequently had to re-read to fully sort them out. All the stories end abruptly with a question or a non sequitur that causes the reader to pause, wonder and frequently smile. Time to go find the original Roy Stories to get a little more background.
December 7, 2017
If you know Barry Gifford only as the creator of iconic characters Sailor and Lulu, don't sleep on his other works, like this collection of micro-fiction, nearly all from the point of view of Roy, based on Barry Gifford's own boyhood. His ability to endlessly riff on small moments and epiphanies is mind boggling.
March 2, 2024
71 stories (from Narrative, Zoetrope All-story, etc) spread over 240 pages, featuring young Roy in fifties Chicago. They're not time-ordered - on p.71 he's 19 and he's been in Europe for 2 years. In other stories he's not yet 10. It's difficult to know where to draw the line, but I think the book should have been far shorter.
Details about his parents appear at the start of several stories. His mother started college then went into modelling, meeting his father who was 20 years older than her. He tried to get her into films. For a while Roy and his mother lived in hotels in Cuba and Florida. His father runs a 24-hours liquor store, which gives Roy a chance to meet interesting people.
A typical template is that a stranger or relative monologs (or dialogs with Roy) then at the end there's a one-liner that adds significance and involves Roy.
Sometimes stories end by Roy implicitly asking people if his interpretation of recent events is correct. Sometimes he misunderstands - Roy is still trying to work out right from wrong, appearances from truth. The trivial and significant intermix. A story with a death - especially a murder - tends to end with a trivial remark.
"The way of all flesh" might be my favourite. But not "Shrimpers" - one of several pieces recounting an event then seeming not to know how to finish, resorting to an unconvincing one-liner. "The Religious experience" is better.
Details about his parents appear at the start of several stories. His mother started college then went into modelling, meeting his father who was 20 years older than her. He tried to get her into films. For a while Roy and his mother lived in hotels in Cuba and Florida. His father runs a 24-hours liquor store, which gives Roy a chance to meet interesting people.
A typical template is that a stranger or relative monologs (or dialogs with Roy) then at the end there's a one-liner that adds significance and involves Roy.
Sometimes stories end by Roy implicitly asking people if his interpretation of recent events is correct. Sometimes he misunderstands - Roy is still trying to work out right from wrong, appearances from truth. The trivial and significant intermix. A story with a death - especially a murder - tends to end with a trivial remark.
"The way of all flesh" might be my favourite. But not "Shrimpers" - one of several pieces recounting an event then seeming not to know how to finish, resorting to an unconvincing one-liner. "The Religious experience" is better.
May 18, 2019
My first book of Gifford's, but it won't be the last. I'm familiar with the name as the editor of the Black Lizard series, but I hadn't otherwise twigged he was an author I ought to be interested in. Anyway, this is a collection of about 70 very short stories, most about 2-3 pages in length, featuring Roy at various ages between 3 and 14 in the 50s and 60s. Mostly these stories are set in Chicago or Florida, and almost all relate to Roy's mother and her various husbands, or Roy's father which seems to have been some kind of gangster. These stories have a quasi-autobiographical feel and they make for interesting reading.
March 8, 2025
I did not know what this book was about at first, and assumed it were something else. The cover itself is completely different to what it's really about. Which, I sort of like. Now, it was a fine book. Specifically, a series of short stories regarding a young boy in 50s Chicago. The innocence of youth and the art of your first kiss, the way girls looked when you were very young, and that wide eyed curiosity all kids have. It's well written and with the different stories, it takes you on a ride. Almost nostalgic.
January 9, 2018
More of the same from the Roy stories, though a few dazzlers: namely "Some Products of the Imagination", and a suite of stories where Roy doesn't figure in the action or commentary. The book ends beautifully with an understated letter from an adolescent Roy to his deceased father.
January 9, 2019
For each of the 67 stories in this book, which each a moment, the writer's eye is beautiful; his voice is audible; his ear is cocked; his heart is huge.
How have I never read one of his books before? So much to look forward to reading!
How have I never read one of his books before? So much to look forward to reading!
May 24, 2019
A book so fantastic, I made a documentary! Check out roysworldfilm.com.
June 25, 2022
Definitely missed the mark for me. I do love the cover though.
December 5, 2023
Gifford is a magician.
June 23, 2024
only got this because the girl on the cover looks like me but was actually a lovely book! judging a book by its cover paying off yet again!!!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews