Inspect Kerran Kuubassa Author Ana Menéndez Released As Ebook

collection of short stories is what I love most about fiction that teaches you history and culture, Menendez does a beautiful, striking job,

My favorite by far were the first and last In Cuba I Was a German Shephard and Her Mother's House with Confusing the Saints a heartbreaking third.


Quotes that moved me:
"He was plain and narrow like the thoughts of early morning when you can imagine your life as a long line of consequences, a simple fact.
"

"I imagine it so well that when I woke this morning, I thought it had already happened, And then how terrible to wake when sleep is the thin blanket you wrap yourself in against your thoughts, "

"'Droughts are very old,' she says, 'Even though we always think we are the first to suffer, '"

"Baseball is not such a big game now, not even here in Miami, a city that considers itself too American to be Cuban and too Cuban to be American.
Baseball here is for the oldtimers, the politicians who still see a home run in each defection, The game is too slow, too tame, and too quiet for these times, But I can understand all it meant to my father, a bastard, an immigrant's son, In the straight old lines of the game, he found a dynasty of players to belong to, Baseball gave him rules to master, a history to memorize, "

"Her question is full of the empty politeness the young show the old, It sits like candy in a pretty bowl, "

"There were moments that seemed, in their first rush of happiness, strong enough to outrun the inevitable, "I thought I would enjoy this novel, No, I thought I would LOVE it, I wanted to love this novel just because it had to do with the two things I know about since I was born living in Miami and being Cuban.
I dont know if its because some of it hits too close to home or Im just inundated by the constant news about Cuba and Cubans, but I didnt love it and that makes me sad and it pains me to give it.
/.

This is a collection of eleven short stories mainly about Cuban Americans living in Miami, Heres the problem with short stories, or at least in this collection, it doesnt give you enough time to explore the characters much less form an attachment to any of them.
In some ways, the stories felt superficial, like the author remembered stuff that Cubans went or have gone through and put it in the book with pretty words with no real emotion behind them.
In other words the story doesnt come from a personal place,

Its also vague, Extremely vague! I hate its vagueness because then everything is left to interpretation, and sometimes thats not enough for me, She never outright says “so and so is cheating on this person” or “so and so lied” its left for you to determine, and although it can be fun guessing what an author meant, I also find it infuriating.
With each story I was left wondering what happened or asking myself “what am I supposed to get out of this What am I supposed to learn from this”

Some of it sounds forced, especially when she talks about Cuba.
Again, I think its because the Cuba that I know and the one she knows or was told about are very different, I think this makes the book sound pretentious, I think she used beautiful language and vague endings in the hopes that someone will say, “ooh thats deep, ”

NinaFor a story that claims to be about the Cuban exiled community, I couldnt connect to it as much as I wished, I think its because the author chose to focus on the generation that came right after Castro took over, Heres where I get personal, I am not from that generation, My family is not from that generation, My parents lived in Cuba for a majority of their lives before deciding to move to the statesyears ago at the turn of the millennium, Obviously, our ideas and our experiences are MUCH different from the one Menendez writes about in her book, Thats not to say that I havent met people who are exactly like the people in her book, but theyre not my experiences,

Okay, this has been the meanest review Ive ever written, but at least Im being honest, I liked a total of,stories: “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd”, “Confusing the Saints”, “Hurricane Stories”, and “Her Mothers House”, Mostly, because I connected in some way or the other with them, I will also agree and say that her prose and imagery is beautiful, and at times they made me stop and just admire her writing, For these reasons I feel like I cant give herstars, but its far from being in my top ten books,
I picked up this book because of its title and bought it because I was intrigued by the subject matter the CubanAmerican immigrant experience, I remember that chapter of history, but remarkably, have never read anything by any Cuban authors describing what it was like, The first story the source of the title says it all, The stories that follow have varying degrees of success in capturing the pain, loss and humor of life in Miami, a temporary refuge that turned into where they lived.
A couple of Menendez' stories were so abstract that it was hard to know what she intended, Others were so percipient they took my breath away, I look forward to seeing what she has written since then, My husband says I have never complained so much about a book, One reviewer said this book had the grace of Margaret Atwood, that reviewer is out their damn mind, This collection of short stories reads like a dream in the summer when you get all tangled in the sheet and you wake up confused and without any idea how you got there.
Only the last story has any discernible plot to follow and makes it the only readable story, I read this one story at a time as a palate cleanser after I mustered my way through a few straight and then couldn't take it anymore.
I am so happy that this is over, The first story in this book grabbed my attention, with the description of older Cuban immigrants telling jokes while they played dominoes in Little Havana, The rest of the stories, which are connected somehow to the first lost me, The writing became very abstract and it was extremely hard to find how they were connected to the first story and to understand what it all meant.
When the author talks about how the grandfather grew a radio out of one ear I continue on just to finish, but with no real enjoyment, As I have gotten older I have lost my patience with books that try to be so philosophical that you don't know what the heck they are talking about.
I read this in two afternoons, because I couldn't put it down, I'm sad I did this only because I wish to have lived with the people in this book for longer, Heartbreaking in the best way, Vivid. Unmistakably Cuban and undeniably American, I'll never forget these people, This entire collection is a breathcatching example of how the universal sits in the specific, I finished it and knew why it had won so many accolades, Read this book!forThe opening story made me think this book hadstar potential, I read a bit more, and then it was clearly a four, I read a bit more, and it became too fantastical for my current reading mood, and it fell to astar, which still isn't bad, It had some lovely writing and lovely moments,

I thought the final story amateurish which I feel unqualified to say because I'm not a writer, but it felt like a college writing workshop story.


If Cuba interests you, and you don't mind animation, then you may like this movie: sitelink chicoyrita. com This collection of eleven short stories resonates with anyone who has had the unfortunate experience of having to leave their homeland and being separated from their families.
Most of Ana Menéndez's

stories are full of nostalgia and longing, These sentiments are brought out quite well by the author, but after I read the first story, which is the title of the book, the following stories fell flat for me.
I didn't find the cohesiveness of these stories as advertised on the book overview, Most of them were abstract and a little difficult to decipher,

On the other hand, I liked the way Ms, Menéndez makes use of metaphors, She has a natural ability to create great imagery from the mundane, Two of my favorite metaphors from "In Cuba I was a German Shepherd" were: "They were stories of old lovers, . . Of green landscapes that clung to the red clay of Güines, roots dug in like fingernails in a goodbye, "pageand "He opened the box with a flourish to reveal a neat row of big heavy pieces gone yellow and smooth like old teeth, " page

Out of the eleven stories published, I only liked the first and the last one"In Cuba I was a German Shepherd" and "Her Mother's House.
" This last one was poignant and clearly brought across the eternal yearning of the older generation for what they left behind even if what they evoked was an exaggeration of their reality.
It proves that the author can write stories full of wisdom and clarity, Pain, shame, and generational trauma, . . and humor to make it all bearable, I saw stories of my family reflected throughout the book, This is the first of Menendezs books I read, and the first written by a Cuban on the Cuban experience, As an immigrant born here, much of the suffering and its poignancy is lost to my generation, Menendez turns prose into poetry with each page and paints secede of suffering, family, hunger and rejoicement so easily, Ive aged ten years just from reading it.
Considering the current state of politics in Cuba, I highly recommend the read if only to understand the courage of these dissidents, Highly recommended to anyone who finds themselves sympathizing with the Cuban government, whos lost sight of its people under its boot, Worth a read to anyone who wants to feel the fear of communism with the privilege of not having lived it, Poignant stories revolving around Cuban exiles and memories of Cuba, There were stories in this collection, particularly the title one, that I loved, There were other stories that felt saccharine, Being a Cuban American from Miami, I could relate very well to these stories and the sentiments in them, I'd say that the majority of the story were hammy, and using the Cuban background to seem "unique", Felt so familiar

As the child of a Cuban refugee, I saw bits and pieces of my family in these stories, No matter the level of abstraction or realism she chose to write with, I felt and recognized many of the joys and pains I see in my own world that I often do not see reflected in media.
I loved it in a soul soothing way, This collection of short stories is all about life in Miami as a Cuban exile, Some characters make an appearance in more than one story, so the stories feel connected yet independent, . . kind of like people that populate them, The overall feeling I got from the stories is that among the older generations that came to Miami to escape the revolution, there seems to be a kind of glamorization of life in Cuba before the revolution.
While they're mostly happy to be "free," they don't necessarily regain a sense of "home" or of belonging in the place they now live like they had in Cuba.
In the final story, a woman born in Miami shortly after the revolution, after her parents fled Cuba, goes back to Cuba as a journalist to visit the plantation where her mother grew up, and she learns that her mother's memories are halftrue at best but realizes that those memories are what sustains her mother's selfimage and so she is reluctant to contradict or even question them when she returns.
It's a great culminating story for the collection, Each story is colorful and entertaining in it's own way, each depicting a different aspect of life in a land that is home even if it doesn't always feel that way, each speaking from a different perspective but with the same voice.
I'm not usually a short story reader, but I enjoyed this collection, .