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Havana Odyssey: Chasing Ochoa's Ghost
Professor Luke Shannon gets upbraided by a Cuban exile at Seattle University. Thirty years ago, Luke didn't keep his promise to Ana Sanchez, a high-profile dissident and his former lover. Her uncle was Cuba's deceased Hero of the Republic, General Arnaldo Ochoa. Luke promised to tell his story to the world. Luke finds out that Ana is still alive but in failing health. In Miami, he catches Cubana Aviacion's last flight to Havana.
Then COVID-19 hits Cuba in 2020. All bets are off if Luke will prevail. His odyssey takes him through police interrogations, steamy salsa clubs and tropical storms. The Inspector, tipped off by Cuban intelligence, is intent on taking him down. Whom can Luke trust? Startling news slaps him in the face. Now he must escape. Can Luke keep his promise or will he die trying?
The demise of General Arnoldo Ochoa is a topic of debate among expatriates and cognoscenti of Cuba. Ochoa's military campaigns in Africa are still taught at the U.S. and Russian War Colleges. This book is based on 65 interviews of Cubans in-country and from exiles abroad. Its places and names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Then COVID-19 hits Cuba in 2020. All bets are off if Luke will prevail. His odyssey takes him through police interrogations, steamy salsa clubs and tropical storms. The Inspector, tipped off by Cuban intelligence, is intent on taking him down. Whom can Luke trust? Startling news slaps him in the face. Now he must escape. Can Luke keep his promise or will he die trying?
The demise of General Arnoldo Ochoa is a topic of debate among expatriates and cognoscenti of Cuba. Ochoa's military campaigns in Africa are still taught at the U.S. and Russian War Colleges. This book is based on 65 interviews of Cubans in-country and from exiles abroad. Its places and names have been changed to protect the innocent.
232 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 26, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 10, 2020
Havana Oldyssey wings its way through Cuba like a very savvy bird. Not just the streets of Havana and byways of Holguín, but the web of political and social control exercised by the State. These are guiding forces in the novel—and within them, the author opens up far more personal worlds: the emotional drama which drives not only Murphy’s characters, but the essential conflict that has evolved between the leaders of Cuba and its people, and between the U.S. and Cuban governments. Amazing plot twists carry the book along, in this deft and forceful story.
January 1, 2021
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Debut novel from Mr Murphy takes readers from Miami to Havana and through the Cuban countryside. Overall a good read, a little confusing when discussing the various Cuban intelligence services but it would be difficult to write a novel about the island without that detail. The novel hits its best part about midway through, when the protagonist takes a train ride through the interior alongside fellow second-class travelers. Mr. Murphy's keen senses honed through his years of adventures (detailed in his memoir) reflect in the conversations, sights, sounds, and smells of the journey, and provide an insight to the Cuban people that makes this worth the read.
Debut novel from Mr Murphy takes readers from Miami to Havana and through the Cuban countryside. Overall a good read, a little confusing when discussing the various Cuban intelligence services but it would be difficult to write a novel about the island without that detail. The novel hits its best part about midway through, when the protagonist takes a train ride through the interior alongside fellow second-class travelers. Mr. Murphy's keen senses honed through his years of adventures (detailed in his memoir) reflect in the conversations, sights, sounds, and smells of the journey, and provide an insight to the Cuban people that makes this worth the read.
March 7, 2021
This is a fascinating "real life" novel by Steve Murphy, mostly truth, some fiction, all riveting.
Murphy spent most of his business life in Latin America, Brazil in particular, working for Bank of Boston and then, in a complete change of career, for Paramount and Universal Pictures. He became friends of the rich and famous (Jeb Bush for example) and the poor in the bowels of Rio's barrios, where he was wholeheartedly adopted as their special Americo friend.
His friendship with Bush and his years on the business side of show biz led to a job as Director of Television & Film Service at the the US Information Agency (USIA) in Washington, DC. There, in 1989, he met a young woman, Ana Sanchez, a Cuban dissident. Ana was the niece of Arnaldo Ochoa, Cuba’s most decorated general, famous for exporting the Castro government’s revolution to South America and Africa.
General Ochoa was the toast of Cuba when he returned from his revolutionary battles, made Hero of the Republic, the nation’s highest honor, and feted wherever he went. Suddenly, however, he was accused of treason and running drugs and, along with three other generals, executed by firing squad. Basically, he became too popular, more popular than the Castro brothers, and had to be eliminated.
Murphy promised Ana that he would tell the general’s story to the world. Ana disappeared one day, perhaps, Murphy thinks, kidnapped by agents of the Cuban government. Whatever the circumstances, she returned to Cuba, and as a dissident and member of the Ochoa family, could not communicate with Murphy, or anyone outside of Cuba.
Murphy never forgot his promise, but 31 years of life interceded, and it was only when another dissident told him that Ana was alive but ill in a remote town far from Havana did he finally take action. Murphy went to Cuba three times, and this “true life” novel is a condensed account of his experiences during his trips to the island. Murphy goes by the name of Luke Shannon in the novel. Unfortunately, Ana died just a few weeks before he arrived in Cuba to investigate, to the extent he could in a totalitarian society, the truth of what befell General Ochoa.
Nevertheless, the highlight of the novel was “Shannon” (Murphy), in Ochoa and Ana’s home town, discovering that Shannon (Murphy) may have been the father of Ana's only child, a son. Father and son discovered each other during an intense Santeria ceremony. Santeria is an Afro-Caribbean religion based on African Yoruba beliefs and traditions, with some Roman Catholic elements added, that is popular in Cuba, especially in the countryside. Shannon observes a colorful and lively ceremony featuring Santeria disciples dancing and swaying hypnotically under a giant tree, until a fierce bolt of lightning strikes the tree and suddenly, in this moment of illumination, Shannon and son recognize each other. They flee the scene together, becoming inseparable for the rest of the tale. (I asked the author if he had really found his son, or was that part of the fiction. He declined to answer. You’ll have to decide for yourself.)
While father and son finding each other and eventually escaping the island together is the most exciting and powerful episode of the novel, Murphy’s on the ground reporting of what life is like for the Cuban people today is the sad subtext.
No one trusts anyone in today’s Cuba. When Murphy arrived in Cuba for the first time, he was interrogated by “the Inspector,” a government true believer who hounded the author throughout his stays in the country. The Inspector reflected the Cuban reality that “Big Brother is watching.” Telephones are tapped. Hotel clerks, tourist guides, taxi drivers, hangers ons, everyone is on the government’s payroll. Or snitches to curry favor with the government. As one sympathetic character says to Shannon, “everyone is seeking an advantage.” The average Cuban makes $1 a day, if they are lucky. So seeking an advantage has become a way of life.
There are “good guys” though. One of the government’s intelligence officers, who had served with Ochoa, originally gave Shannon a hard time when he asked to see records related to the general’s trial. Later, he helped Shannon, his "son" and a friend, leave the island unscathed. Catholic priests and evangelicals associated with home churches (20,000 of them on the island) were especially helpful to Murphy/Shannon.
Murphy's close ties to Cuba and the trust he has earned with Cubans inside and outside the island nation have provided him unvarnished insights into today’s brutal, poverty stricken Cuba. And enabled him to write this international thriller, which I highly recommend.
Murphy spent most of his business life in Latin America, Brazil in particular, working for Bank of Boston and then, in a complete change of career, for Paramount and Universal Pictures. He became friends of the rich and famous (Jeb Bush for example) and the poor in the bowels of Rio's barrios, where he was wholeheartedly adopted as their special Americo friend.
His friendship with Bush and his years on the business side of show biz led to a job as Director of Television & Film Service at the the US Information Agency (USIA) in Washington, DC. There, in 1989, he met a young woman, Ana Sanchez, a Cuban dissident. Ana was the niece of Arnaldo Ochoa, Cuba’s most decorated general, famous for exporting the Castro government’s revolution to South America and Africa.
General Ochoa was the toast of Cuba when he returned from his revolutionary battles, made Hero of the Republic, the nation’s highest honor, and feted wherever he went. Suddenly, however, he was accused of treason and running drugs and, along with three other generals, executed by firing squad. Basically, he became too popular, more popular than the Castro brothers, and had to be eliminated.
Murphy promised Ana that he would tell the general’s story to the world. Ana disappeared one day, perhaps, Murphy thinks, kidnapped by agents of the Cuban government. Whatever the circumstances, she returned to Cuba, and as a dissident and member of the Ochoa family, could not communicate with Murphy, or anyone outside of Cuba.
Murphy never forgot his promise, but 31 years of life interceded, and it was only when another dissident told him that Ana was alive but ill in a remote town far from Havana did he finally take action. Murphy went to Cuba three times, and this “true life” novel is a condensed account of his experiences during his trips to the island. Murphy goes by the name of Luke Shannon in the novel. Unfortunately, Ana died just a few weeks before he arrived in Cuba to investigate, to the extent he could in a totalitarian society, the truth of what befell General Ochoa.
Nevertheless, the highlight of the novel was “Shannon” (Murphy), in Ochoa and Ana’s home town, discovering that Shannon (Murphy) may have been the father of Ana's only child, a son. Father and son discovered each other during an intense Santeria ceremony. Santeria is an Afro-Caribbean religion based on African Yoruba beliefs and traditions, with some Roman Catholic elements added, that is popular in Cuba, especially in the countryside. Shannon observes a colorful and lively ceremony featuring Santeria disciples dancing and swaying hypnotically under a giant tree, until a fierce bolt of lightning strikes the tree and suddenly, in this moment of illumination, Shannon and son recognize each other. They flee the scene together, becoming inseparable for the rest of the tale. (I asked the author if he had really found his son, or was that part of the fiction. He declined to answer. You’ll have to decide for yourself.)
While father and son finding each other and eventually escaping the island together is the most exciting and powerful episode of the novel, Murphy’s on the ground reporting of what life is like for the Cuban people today is the sad subtext.
No one trusts anyone in today’s Cuba. When Murphy arrived in Cuba for the first time, he was interrogated by “the Inspector,” a government true believer who hounded the author throughout his stays in the country. The Inspector reflected the Cuban reality that “Big Brother is watching.” Telephones are tapped. Hotel clerks, tourist guides, taxi drivers, hangers ons, everyone is on the government’s payroll. Or snitches to curry favor with the government. As one sympathetic character says to Shannon, “everyone is seeking an advantage.” The average Cuban makes $1 a day, if they are lucky. So seeking an advantage has become a way of life.
There are “good guys” though. One of the government’s intelligence officers, who had served with Ochoa, originally gave Shannon a hard time when he asked to see records related to the general’s trial. Later, he helped Shannon, his "son" and a friend, leave the island unscathed. Catholic priests and evangelicals associated with home churches (20,000 of them on the island) were especially helpful to Murphy/Shannon.
Murphy's close ties to Cuba and the trust he has earned with Cubans inside and outside the island nation have provided him unvarnished insights into today’s brutal, poverty stricken Cuba. And enabled him to write this international thriller, which I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews