Until We're Fish

by Susannah R. Drissi

A man can be destroyed but never defeated.

Stunning and elegiac, Susannah Rodríguez Drissi’s debut novel Until We’re Fish juxtaposes vivid landscapes, brilliant, playful meditations on life, and penetrating insights into the human heart, to richly bring to life the story of rapscallion dreamer Elio, a Cuban teen whose unbridled confidence is severely tested after a near-fatal shark attack.

Elio longs for freedom from the dreary home he shares with his mother. He spends his days and nights fantasizing about an American bike and Maria, his vivacious next-door neighbor. Two obstacles stand in his way: the 1959 Cuban Revolution and Maria’s dream of moving to Chicago. Yet Elio is steadfast in believing that somehow, some way he will get both the girl and the Schwinn. When an injury leaves him terrified of the sea, he's faced with an impossible choice: to overcome his fear and do whatever it takes to realize his vision, or to stay safe, and risk losing everything he’s been living for. 

An unforgettable coming-of-age story, Until We’re Fish blends the romance, violence, mood, and ethos of the Cuban Revolution with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love. With the truth of experience and the lyricism of poetry, Rodríguez Drissi constructs an exquisite, gossamer tale of revolution and hearts set adrift. A Don Quixote for our times, Until We’re Fish is an intimate exploration into the souls of people willing to sacrifice everything to be free.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

383 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2020

About the author

Susannah Rodríguez Drissi is a multigenre writer, translator, and scholar. Her poetry, prose, and academic papers have appeared in journals and anthologies such as In Season: Stories of Discovery, Loss, Home, and Places in Between, which won the 2018 Florida Book Award; the Los Angeles Review of Books; Saw Palm; Literal Magazine; Diario de Cuba; SX Salon; Raising Mothers; the Acentos Review; and Cuba Counterpoints, among many others. Her plays have been performed in Los Angeles and Miami, and she is currently at work on Nocturno, a musical. Rodríguez Drissi is the author of The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos (Floricanto Press, 2019). She is on the faculty of the Writing Programs at the University of California, Los Angeles, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two young daughters.

Reviews

[Bookaholic__Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A man can be destroyed but never defeated"

Until We're Fish is a heartwarming and heartwrenching coming-of-age story unlike any I have read before. Until We're Fish melds romance and violence together perfectly creating a modern day Don Quixote.

Elio is a man with big dreams, but just how far will he push to get what he wants in life? Elio can overcome his fears or play things safe and let go of his dreams forever.

Until We're Fish is technically historical fiction, but I personally think many traditionally non-fiction readers would thoroughly enjoy this book. The portions written involving the revolution were both eye-opening and fascinating. Historical fiction isn't my typical go-to, but somehow, I got lost in Elios' world. This book has definitely made me more open to historical fiction in the future.Until We're Fish was written beautifully and transported me to Cuba. I quickly found myself lost within the pages.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you again, Random Things Tour, for including my review.

[Kelly Guerrit · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a second generation Cuban-American, Until We’re Fish seems to have finally filled a gap in Cuban « expat » literature, telling a story that seems at once familiar, weaving in characters that are reminiscient of my own family’s struggles, and yet special in the genre, because Drissi tells us what it’s like to actually have stayed on the island. Even as the narrative unfolds in a post-revolutionary Cuba, the characters’ struggles are not as niche as they might seem. Rather the story is about self-actualisation versus self-destruction, and in this sense, it will appeal to so many people who have ever had a passion or a dream, or asked who am I in this world — or in Elio’s case — on this island.

[Inkslinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC provided by Susannah R. Drissi and Propertius Press via Random Things Tours. All opinions are mine and freely given.

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"Revolutions," he was saying, "are never what they seem."
"In his mind, revolutions and shark attacks were one and the same."


01-20: 'Until We're Fish' by Susanna R. Drissi is more than just a coming of age story, though in the early pages we do experience just that for young Elio, Pepe, and Maria. In fact, the book opens with a bit of a horrifying event.. which really sets the tone for the story.

Set amidst the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution, at first literally nothing but background noise and later becoming a central part of every day life.. the book follows Elio on his quest for Maria's love, the evolution of a friendship he never wanted to have with Pepe, and the reality that plagues them all.

The prose is lyrical and the mood.. mostly somber.. and though the characters struggle, there's a recurring theme of hope.. no matter how hard things seem to get for them.

Elio is really charming. His situation is awful when we meet him and only gets worse, but goodness he tries. He tries to be good and do the right thing, tries to be supportive where he can, and most of all.. tries to keep his head up. He has plenty of little idiosyncracies and his fair share of trauma.. both emotional and physical, but through it all he mostly maintains that goodness.

That's exactly what makes me dislike everyone around him.. at least a little. At critical times, they're not there when he needs them.. or they openly clash with him, leaving him to be ridiculed at best. Even amongst those who should be there for him.. the relationships just seem very imbalanced.


"Time slipped and fell around her, unanchored. As if parts of her had already begun to drift away."


Now.. I'm not a big history buff, so I can't really dispute the traces I saw in this story. Through a little quick research, I did verify the country suffered things called 'Repudiation Rallies'.. whereby people who were believed to be planning or hoping to leave (possibly even if this wasn't the case).. we're often physically or verbally insulted, or arrested and punished some other way.. as a way of hoping they'd decide to stay. Because.. I suppose making someone's already unhappy life worse.. would totally do that.. right? If it some cases it did succeed, I imagine those people must have been just about terrified as to what else might await them.

It's definitely a tough tale and the likelihood it may be rooted in more truth than I would hope is a hard one to stomach. After what I've seen in of leadership my own home country this year, it certainly doesn't strike me as out of the realm of possibility either. The threat of personal oversight is all laid out here in all its ugly truths.. with friends turning on each other to get their basic needs filled, oppression instilled by a government figure, and fed by the people.. who in reality are just helping that figure keep them down too.


"The guy was allergic to words, let alone ones that might turn into sentences and run for hundreds of pages, only to be continued in Part II."


I recommend giving this story a read. Though it's technically fiction, the glimpse it gives into the struggle people deal with in similar situations.. will be eye-opening. Though I certainly feel like it's still a soft, gauzy representation of those miseries.. it's something to think about and oh.. how the hearts of these undeniably resilient people moved me.

Bravo.

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[Asela Laguna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until We’re Fish, Susannah Rodríguez Drissi’s debut novel, is a riveting retelling of the Cuban ethos from 1959 until the late nineties. Beautifully written and thought-provoking, it is about unconditional love, misfortunes, grief, disillusionment and survival chronicled through the eyes and experiences of two ordinary characters, childhood sweethearts Elio and Maria.

Set in Bauta, a small rural town home to a successful textile company that employs most of the local people, the author succeeds in vividly seizing the region’s landscape, aromas, manners, colloquial speech modes as well as the social, labor and domestic minutiae while tracing the journeys of Elio and Maria.

Elio, a good nature daydreaming and unselfish fellow, and avid reader of Don Quixote, as a person is marked by his dad’s abandonment prior to 1959, and his mother’s suicide when he was eighteen years old. In a world of lacking he focuses instead in his undeniably true-hearted love for Maria, his unambiguous dream to possess a bicycle and his hardworking efforts to subsist. Maria, an Emma Bovary phone operator, aspired always to live the lifestyles envisioned browsing her favorite Sears’ catalogues. After two decades of impoverished unimaginative married life, she abandons Elio. With friends she sails in a Buick converted into a boat to Florida, hoping someday to make it to Chicago, in her imagination, Sears destination of happiness.

At another level, this text, very well documented and filled with a myriad of characters and subplots, aptly maps out the sad itinerary and soul of common people robbed of their dreams and hopes during different moments under the Cuban revolution (early years, the Mariel boat lift and the Special Period). A fascinating tale of “fish in a barrel” trying to find a way out.
Asela R. Laguna

[Elie Axelroth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not many in the US are familiar with life in Cuba other than the Buena Vista Club and cigars and rum and whatever thoughts they have about Castro. In "Until We're Fish" Drissi presents us with a poignant, loving portrait of a Cuba lost to oppression and poverty. We weep for Elio, who yearns for a better life but is tragically drowning in the past. This is a story of love and dreams and the power of relationships to pull us out of the depths.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until We’re Fish
By Susannah Drissi
Published by Propertius Press 2020
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Be prepared to visualize Cuba in all its beautiful glory and heart wrenching pain. This book is a love story depicting all types of love. We follow the courtship and decades-long marriage of Elio and Maria. There’s also the amazing relationship between two friends. On an even bigger level is the love/hate relationship each character has with Cuba itself.

Maria dreams of better times and places, namely Chicago. In her mind, America is the way to a better life. Elio refuses to leave Cuba. Elio loves Maria and absolutely adores her but as in all relationships the selfless sacrifice gets harder and harder. Elio is scared of the water due to a horrible incident. He persevered through life, adjusting his hopes and expectations with the reality before him.

The characters are so well written. You can feel the hunger pangs, sense the fear of the water, feel the eyes of nosy tattletales on your back and hope for so much better. I’ve read Chanel Cleeton’s books When We Left Cuba and Next Year In Havana so I was aware of the 1958- 90s struggles in Cuba. So if you liked Chanel Cleeton’s books you’ll love Until We’re Fish! Susannah Drissi tells the story in a much better, more realistic way. The dialect really puts you in the scene with the characters. I’m not sure I’ll be able to get the word “cajones” out of my head. The feel of the dirt, sweat and sand in the story make you want to shower. And when taking the shower you realize just how precious soap is much less a razor.

Watch for the imagery and symbolism to really understand the characters and their situation. For example, pay attention to the idea of owning a bicycle, reading books, owning books, what the weather changes precede, where the fish are and how they move, etc.

This book is perfect for book clubs because there is so much to discuss. It has great discussion questions at the end.

There were many good quotes. Two of my favorites:
Page 129 “Because there was nothing like having nothing to make people fight tooth and nail, to rat people out, to defile someone’s good reputation, to ruin someone for good.”

Page 136 “She wanted to erase any trace of the existence of books in her life. Books as far as she was concerned, had brought her nothing but heartache, esperisimos, and desires she’d never fulfill.”

Page 141 “He could go to prison for stealing a book- but not because stealing was a punishable crime, but because stealing a book suggested an even greater offense: the free pursuit of ideas.”

Page 274 “Getting married is like reading a book. You choose the book, you open it, and you read it to the end- whether you like the story or not. It’s about commitment. You have to see the story to the end.”

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things that I love most about reading, is how educational it can be. In Until We're Fish, the reader is transported to Cuba, and we stay there through four decades, right through to the 1990s. Whilst I knew a little about Cuba's history, I've never read a book set in this period before and it's been an eye-opening and fascinating glimpse into a world I knew so little about.

Whilst this is a fiction, it is clear that the author writes with great authority, and her writing is beautiful. There's a lyrical, almost poetic element to her story. Her descriptive prose is enchanting and her character development is so cleverly done.

At its heart, this is a love story, following the ups and the downs of the continuing relationship between Elio and Maria and set in a small rural town called Bauta. Elio has loved Maria since he was a child, and Maria has loved the thought of living in America for just as long, as she studies the Sears catalogue and dreams of a different life.

Elio's childhood tragedies have impacted upon his adult life and despite his enduring love for Maria, he refuses to leave Cuba. Eventually this will mark the ending of their love, but the decades in between are wonderfully told. The author captures the small town and its surroundings so well, along with the unsettling feelings shown by the inhabitants for their own country; their home, but also, to some extent, their prison.

A vividly detailed story that is a joy to immerse yourself in. I admire the author's skill with words, it was a shock to look up from reading and find myself looking out at a snowy landscape after being so invested in this story. Recommended.

[Joanna Hoyt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been said that there are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting what you want. "Until We’re Fish" is a vivid, complex, wryly funny, and profoundly sad portrayal of both sorts of tragedy in the lives of a Cuban couple over the decades following the Revolution. Elio longs for Maria’s love, and for a fast elegant bicycle, and for something else whose contours keep changing but whose pull on his heart remains constant. Maria’s prosier longings are focused on the lifestyle she reads about in the Sears catalogs. For both of them the dream remains heart-tearingly elusive. Their ways of coping with disappointment are as different as their dreams.

Reading this book reminded me of my ignorance on two important points: I know far less than I should of Cuban history, and I have never read Don Quixote, which keeps recurring at important moments in the text and would, I am sure, add layers of meaning that I am currently blind to. "Until We’re Fish" makes me want to correct both these lacks.

I still am struck by Rodríguez Drissi’s vivid imagery and keen awareness of the contradictions we live with. These are just a few of the quotes that particularly stuck in my mind:

“Mending his relationship with his mother was like mending an old sock: just as you got rid of one hole, another one opened up.”

“Perhaps even more ubiquitous were the televisions in every house, pulsating the metallic sounds of American action films like a chronic migraine, accompanied by rapid weight loss, restlessness, and pain for which no other cause could be diagnosed. It was, everyone conceded, a period marked by especially extenuating circumstances.”

“Over centuries, Cubans had looked about themselves and seen value only in what was foreign, what was outside of themselves.”

“Perhaps he’d been on the wrong side of history all along—or he had refused to take sides at a time when taking sides had been of the utmost importance.”

I don’t know how to rate this book. I read it at a time when I was hungry for hope, for the promise that something constructive can grow out of the brokenness and tangles of our history and of our families, and that’s not what I found in this story. But the writing is gorgeous, the questions the story raises will stay with me, and Elio—dreamer, lover, survivor, dupe, hero—got under my skin and into my heart quite effectively; otherwise I might not have felt the book’s sadness so strongly.

[Ann Howley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, lyrical story of love, loss, and longing. From the first pages, I felt like I was being called to bear witness to the resiliency of the Cuban people through Elio and Maria, two young lovers, who endure hope and heartbreak in the decades following the revolution. The author presents their simple, poignant lives with such raw honesty that I know this story is going to stay with me for a long time.

[Tilly Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult story to explain - it both feels as though a lot happens, and nothing happens at the same time. It’s a story to completely lose yourself in, that gets deep into your bones.

Described as a coming-of-age story, we follow the lives of Elio and Maria from their youth all the way to old age, against the backdrop of the Cuban revolution and the many years of tension, secrecy and betrayals after. Throw in a shark attack fairly early on, and you have a story full of tragedy, sorrow and compromised dreams.

Whilst the story is a sad one, the writing is most certainly not - you can tell that the author is a poet, and the words just sing on the pages. I was completely swept away by this lyrical tale.

The crux of the story is to do with the decision so many Cubans had to make in the wake of the revolution - stay in this divided island, unable to trust their own neighbours, friends and colleagues, or risk fleeing to America not knowing what awaits them. Maria dreams of life in Chicago after obsessively reading the Sears catalogue as a young girl, whilst Elio refuses to abandon his home in the way his father abandoned him. The compromises and resentments which build in their relationship are both honest and heartbreaking.

Whilst this is a tragic story, there are also wonderful moments of hope, vibrancy, humour and love. I especially enjoyed the way the characters pepper in phrases from the Sears catalogue in their dialogue, not always accurately!

My only small criticism is that I struggled to keep up at the end as it seemed Elio descended into some kind of madness and I found it a little confusing - but that’s probably me being daft!

This is literary fiction at its finest - engrossing, complex, beautifully written and hard to forget. A pleasure to read.

[Laura Solar · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a tender, emotional story this was! Until We’re Fish is the first work of historical fiction I’ve read based around events in Cuba from the 1950s, and I was floored by how much I didn’t know. My husband’s mom is from Cuba, so I was incredibly interested in this book, and it did not let me down.
🦈
Until We’re Fish is the story of Elio, a 13 year old Cuban boy who is as obsessed with his beautiful neighbor Maria as he is with owning his very own Schwinn bicycle. Maria dreams of all things America, Chicago, and especially Sears. After Elio is attacked by a shark and saved by his romantic rival Pepe, the two become unlikely friends. Over the years, we see the three of them grow older and become increasingly determined to get what they’ve dreamed of no matter the cost.
🦈
First of all, the prose is absolutely breathtaking. The care with which Susannah Drissi crafted each line was evident, and I highlighted so many passages just because of how beautiful the writing was. Although the story follows many different characters, it was easy to follow because of how unique they all were. I had to look up some of the Spanish phrases used, and some history on the Cuban Revolution, so I definitely recommend doing a little background research, or at least having Google handy in case you need it. Some of the chapters in the middle felt a bit slow, but overall I enjoyed the pacing of the book. This was an outstanding debut that will absolutely touch your soul. I’ll leave you with this quote that I found so hauntingly relevant to our current situation in the US: “Perhaps he’d been on the wrong side of history all along — or he had refused to take sides at a time when taking sides had been of the utmost importance.”
🦈

[Cindy Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not the sort of book I would tend to read. I did not expect to keep reading it after the first ten pages or so because there was lots of "smirking" and two boys and one girl. I don't tend to love historical fiction, but I was drawn in to the desperation and the starkness and the gaslighting of an entire nation told mainly through the eyes of one man.

In this book, nothing really "happens." In the background, the Cuban revolution is raging; people are fleeing; people are dying; the world is violent.

Drissi's prose is deceptively lyrical (although occasionally it feels a bit weird bc she is writing characters who are supposed to be speaking in Spanish but then they sometimes speak in English but the book is in English with Spanish sprinkled throughout--mostly it's smooth, but sometimes it pulls you out of the story.) The mood is pretty somber...Elios, the main character is a pure innocent...from losing a testicle to a shark, to gaining a girl because of that accident, to losing his mind slowly over decades....but you still want to shake him and make him change....but not change. All he really wants, truly, is a working bicycle--is that too much to ask? Apparently so....

You feel like you should feel empathy and pity for his wife and his friends, but you really want for them to understand him...it's a compelling mind fuck at times--in the best of ways.

Reading this book at this time in the US made me feel how easily people could slip and fall under the rule of a dictator.

You don't get all of the atrocities right in the face; you see them in the shadows, but it's terrifying and heartbreaking nonetheless. This book lingers....

[Kathleen Rubin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve only seen the tourist side of Cuba let Susannah Drissi pull you into the neighborhood she left when she was nine. She grows her characters by engaging you in daily, intimate lives (in Bauta, a small town 22 km from Havana) by showing how they manage emotional and physical deprivations of island life where there are “only seams and edges and limits” and invasive systems of internal and external social control. Sharing deep passions around happenings show the import Drissi feels both growing up and in hearing from loved ones’ experience of such difficult times. Memorable: “life broke her 1 hairline fracture at a time”, “a grin like an anchor”, “neither those that stay or those that go escape”. Yet readers must remember that no one account, fiction or non, contains all the truths.

[Karen Kingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautifully written book starts in 1959, as young Elio deals with being being abandoned by his father, who has travelled to the USA to find fame and fortune. Elio suffers an injury at the beach and loses his nerve for swimming in the sea.

The book follows Elio, Pepe and Maria, as they grow up and start work in Cuba as the revolution changes the lives of the Cubans. Maria dreams of moving to Chicago but Elio doesn’t want to leave. The book is a blend of a coming of age story and a historical fiction novel. Would they stay or would they try to flee to the USA, to be able to live the consumer dream (Maria was obsessed with the Sears catalogue as a teenager).

This is a complex story, with Elio, Pepe and Maria on a variety of life journeys through over 30 years. I was engrossed by the story and enjoyed my virtual visit to Cuba, a world very different to England, especially during this time period. A book for both history and travel fans.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 3.5 if i could figure out this system. Really liked being taken to Cuba and being part of life there... I just felt repetitive at times so would have liked it even more if it was trimmed.

[Patty York Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elio and Maria were believable characters. I feel like I got to know them quite well-their fears and dreams.

[Michelle Farnham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and authentically told, "Until We're Fish" is lyrical like a great Cuban song. Heartwarming one moment and heartbreaking the next, but it never falls prey to sentimentality. "Until We're Fish" is deeply moving. It's a love story about an ordinary boy named Elio who dreams about having a bicycle and the girl next door and what happens when you can't always get what you want. Much has been written about those who leave Cuba and their journeys but this book deals with what happens to those who stay behind on an island trapped in the limbo of indecision. As specific as the story may seem it leads to a universal truth: sometimes the worse decisions are the ones you never make. I can't wait to read it again!