Welcome to Havana, Señor Hemingway
Alfredo Jose Estrada

Review by Alyce Wilson

Welcome to Havana, Señor Hemingway is an historical novel set in pre-Castro Cuba at a time when political forces were beginning to come to a head. The book contrasts the lives of the privileged elite, primarily British and American expatriates, with the political rebellion being led, at that time, by a group of student revolutionaries.

Ernest Hemingway appears as a character, with experiences drawn on biographical information from a variety of sources.

The book is an interesting project that is more or less successful. At its best moments it reminds the reader of "The Great Gatsby," particularly the way the social elite are both decadent and blase.

Hemingway is portrayed as something of a bumbler and reminds me of Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise: a lady's man, liked by all, who's quick with the fisticuffs, loves adventure but is not given to being terribly introspective.

The two man areas which could have used improvement were the use of point-of-view and the sheer number of characters.

Because he writes in third person limited, each chapter is told from the point-of-view of one of the characters. Although he makes it clear fairly early on whose point-of-view is being followed for that chapter, it's a little jarring, especially since the first portion of the novel is told from the point-of-view of only a few main characters.

Perhaps he would have been better off using third person omniscient, where he could have told everyone's story from a more universal viewpoint.

The number of characters is overwhelming as more and more minor characters are introduced, such as a number of student revolutionaries who are fairly interchangeable. This could have been addressed either by limiting the number of characters, or alternatively, including a guide in the front of the book to the characters and their relationships.

Welcome to Havana is set up as a journey through time, as told by the grandson of one of the Cubans in the story, who is researching history in order to discover what might have been in a novel his grandfather once wrote and then discarded. The majority of the book is this imaginary novel.

While the structure works, it could have been interesting to tell the story from the point-of-view of the present time, as the grandson discovers his grandfather's colorful past.

At any rate, Welcome to Havana is an interesting read and a fascinating exploration of the intersection between family, politics and culture.

Vista Magazine, 2004: ISBN 0974700401