| Title | : | Kerran Kuubassa |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9789511171393 |
| Language | : | Finnish |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 207 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2001 |
Kerran Kuubassa Reviews
-
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd is a collection of eleven short stories. The collection features a mix of fiction, meta-fiction and allegory. They explore a number of themes such as truth and memory, nostalgia, and dislocation. Largely set in Miami each story revolves around the experiences of Cuban immigrants and their American-born offspring and relate to personal relationships and immigration.
The first and last stories, “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd” and “Her Mother’s House,” look at the experiences of first- and second-generation Cuban Americans.
In the first story, Máximo, emigrates to America along with his wife where they reinvent themselves as restaurateurs, however the sense of dislocation remains. After work, they and their staff of fellow Cuban immigrants exchange stories about Cuba that begin hopefully but end in despair as they realise their nostalgia for the past and the reality are two very different beasts.
In “Her Mother’s House”, Lisette, a reporter who grew up in Miami, travels to Cuba in the expectation that she will find the truth about her identity. Instead, she experiences the same cocktail of hope and despair felt by older immigrants.
Seven of the other stories work on a meta-fictional level: questioning the reliability of memory and charting the emotional toll of losing one’s home, whether that be a physical one (Cuba) or an emotional one (a relationship). The remaining four stories use allegory for much the same purpose.
Now I should point out at this juncture that I'm not usually a fan of short story collections as I generally find that some work whilst others don't for me. These are no different. I enjoyed some, 'The Perfect Fruit' and 'Story of a Parrot', whilst others less so, in particular 'Confusing the Saints' which felt out of step with the other stories. However, I did admire Ana Menendez's writing style and found the tales generally interesting and thought provoking. -
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.
-
A few months ago, I posted in one book community or another, asking for recommendations of Cuban authors. At last count I've read more than 30 non-fiction books involving Cuban history and/or politics, but hadn't read much fiction. This was one of the first books recommended to me and I was really excited to read it.
While I liked it overall, I had a few problems with it. First of all, it was a collection of short stories. I am not typically a fan of short stories. Though the few collections that really hit me are worth the majority that I hate. However, this series was pretty much the epitome of what I dislike about short stories. Instead of really being a collection of unrelated stories, it was a series of related stories that should have really had a more cohesive narrative and just been a novel. When this happens, when a collection of short stories has every story with the same narrator (like jerkwad David Sedaris, for example), it just makes me think the writer was too lazy to put in the time making it a novel.
Second of all, the stories were really of a 2nd generation Cuban-American living in Miami. A few of the stories were of her homeland, but for the most part it was a book about being the child of an immigrant and growing up in a community that's made largely of immigrants. While that's an interesting enough topic, I've had enough friends in similar situations that I don't really need to read a series of short stories about it.
The writing was fine, but nothing particularly special. If it had been the right subject matter, I think I would have liked the writing more. It was very simple and the point was obviously to tell a story, rather than to fill the pages with flowery prose.
In summation : If someone ever asks me for a recommendation of a book of short stories about being raised in the U.S. as the child of Cuban immigrants, and wants the book in question to be easy to read, I'll know what to recommend. -
Poignant stories revolving around Cuban exiles and memories of Cuba.
-
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 don’t know if it’s because some of it hits too close to home or I’m just inundated by the constant news about Cuba and Cubans, but I didn’t love it and that makes me sad and it pains me to give it 2.5/5.
This is a collection of eleven short stories mainly about Cuban Americans living in Miami. Here’s the problem with short stories, or at least in this collection, it doesn’t 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 doesn’t come from a personal place.
It’s also vague. Extremely vague! I hate it’s vagueness because then everything is left to interpretation, and sometimes that’s not enough for me. She never outright says “so and so is cheating on this person” or “so and so lied” it’s 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 it’s 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 that’s deep.”
NinaFor a story that claims to be about the Cuban exiled community, I couldn’t connect to it as much as I wished. I think it’s because the author chose to focus on the generation that came right after Castro took over. Here’s 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 states 16 years 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. That’s not to say that I haven’t met people who are exactly like the people in her book, but they’re not my experiences.
Okay, this has been the meanest review I’ve ever written, but at least I’m being honest. I liked a total of 2.5 stories: “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd”, “Confusing the Saints”, “Hurricane Stories”, and “Her Mother’s 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 can’t give her 2 stars, but it’s far from being in my top ten books. -
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 good-bye."(page 7) and "He...opened the box with a flourish to reveal a neat row of big heavy pieces gone yellow and smooth like old teeth." (page 18-19)
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. -
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 half-true at best but realizes that those memories are what sustains her mother's self-image 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.
-
Menendez created a wonderful short story collection that helped me better understand the conflicts and concerns of Cuban immigrants and those who remain in Cuba. Her stories deal with painful losses and separation, cultural misunderstandings, characters who transform and characters who are so traumatized by their experiences that they are unable to make the changes they need to make. Her most challenging story is "Miami Relatives" in which she relies on humans to represent different aspects of Cuba and the Cuban government, which might remind you of Animal Farm but Menendez is more opaque. My personal favorite was the first story, which shares the title of the book. Four old men gather almost daily to play dominoes in Domino Park; two are Cuban immigrants and two are Dominican. The Cubans fled Castro's regime, and one in particular feels the loss of status associated with losing his university job in Cuba to run a restaurant in Miami. He reveals his pain through elaborate jokes with biting punchlines, which are both funny and horribly sad. Through the form of short stories tied to a central theme, Menendez helps underscore the splintered nature of the community that is living on two sides of the Caribbean.
-
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.
-
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. -
Pain, shame, and generational trauma... and humor to make it all bearable. I saw stories of my family reflected throughout the book.
-
This 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." (100)
"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." (116)
"'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 old-timers, 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." (131)
"Her question is full of the empty politeness the young show the old. It sits like candy in a pretty bowl." (199)
"There were moments that seemed, in their first rush of happiness, strong enough to outrun the inevitable." (209) -
A collection of stories based on Cuban exiles in Miami. Though these type of Cuban exile stories usually focus on politics, these choose to deal with the impact produced by separation, loss, melancholy and longing for the homeland. Beautifully written from the perspective of a second generation Cuban American the author manages to handle this material with humor, poetry and beautiful imagery. At times abstract and others straight forward which gives each story in the collection a sense of uniqueness when they are connected by the same themes. I particularly liked the first and last stories, having grown with a Cuban stepfather who fought in Bay of Pigs, these stripes resonated with me. I remember going to the park looking for abuelo and he would be playing dominoes with other expatriates and having the same conversations as the characters in the first story. I also remember hearing family gatherings in which people would talk about what the had left in Cuba or was stolen by Fidel, while being contradicted by others who saw things in a different light. Thought the book deals with Cubans and their plight, anyone can relate to the stories and themes herein. I can’t wait to share it with my sisters.
-
The story grabbed my attention with these Cuban immigrants who gather, and remember Cuba while playing Domino in their little Havana in Miami. The author reminded me in my country by representing the emotions of these elder Cubans as you can experience their emotions and what is going on around them even when they are joking: "Clinton goes up to a Cuban fellow and says, `Compadre, how are things in Cuba these days?' The guy looks at Clinton and he says to the president, `Let me tell you, my friend, I can feel it in my bones. Any day now Castro's gonna fall." (Menéndez, 2002, p. 4).
The story focuses on politics, and it deals with separation, loss, and longing for the home. It handles them with humor, and beautiful imagery, the author's cultural identity is strongly represented here, since no one will be as intelligent and skillful to invent this beautiful game of Domino but Cuban (Menéndez, 2002).
I love the relationships between the families which had been influenced by the immigration, and so I need to re-read it since it reminds me of the many many people from my country who had been evacuated from their home and lost their cultural identity by Saddam Hussein. -
This is the first of Menendez’s books I read, and the first written by a Cuban on the Cuban experience. As an immigrant born here, much of the suffering and it’s 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, I’ve 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, who’s 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.
-
An interesting collection of stories focusing on exiles from Cuba. Not too long ago, I read a somewhat so-so novel that had a great deal about Miami in the time of Castro's rise to power in Cuba. While the novel itself didn't enchant me, the glimpse of the emigres did, as did the portal into Miami before it became the Miami I know. This book was a tasty follow-up to that, that I actually liked much more than the main course. Just little things, like a description of Maximo, or preparing for a hurricane that never comes. I also liked how some of the stories interconnected, character-wise, though could easily stand alone. There is a delicacy, here, but a keen eye as well.
-
I picked up this book because of its title and bought it because I was intrigued by the subject matter - the Cuban-American 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.
-
The opening story made me think this book had 5-star 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 a 3-star, 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:
http://www.chicoyrita.com) -
I have to say I did enjoy her descriptiveness when it came to scenery, the personalities, and just overall depiction of visuals. I liked the first few beginnings stories; I found them relatable for women who have struggled in relationships/ marriages. I related less to later on stories and felt sometimes each chapter felt abrupt since you had to become familiar with new characters. I didn’t really laugh, cry, or gasp. EXCEPT for the crazy aunt that bites... that was peculiar. But at the end of each story I just would feel confused about what I just read.
-
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 breath-catching example of how the universal sits in the specific. I finished it and knew why it had won so many accolades. Read this book! #38for38
-
Lovely writing, short stories always give me trouble because I find that in finishing one I have no desire to jump right into the next one - I already feel complete, why move on so quickly! Not a negative, just an observation. These stories flow well from one to the next, while being separate and having separate character voices and attitudes, they still feel connected in a winding sort of way.
Read this book! -
Stories of the immigrant Cuban community in Miami, loosely connected by characters that recur in stories. The stories capture the successes and frustrations that come from their uprooting, as well as the poignancy that memories bring. Highlights are the prize-winning title story, as well as Hurricane Stories, The Perfect Fruit, The Party and Her Mother's House.
-
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".
-
I'm not sure if three stars is really an accurate rating...I LOVED some stories (Hurricane Stories, Miami Relatives, The Perfect Fruit, Why We Left) , but others did nothing for me (Baseball Dreams, Story of a Parrot). In any case, I liked and would recommend this book, and Ana Menendez is the queen of the beautiful metaphor!
-
"He slept, and in his dreams he was a green and yellow fish swimming in warm waters, gliding through the coral, the only fish in the sea and he was happy. But the light changed and the sea darkened suddenly and he was rising through it, afraid of breaking the surface, afraid of the pinhole sun on the other side, afraid of drowning in the blue vault of sky." (p.27)
-
Read this not because it's about the Latin experience displaced in American culture (although that adds to the appeal) but because Ana Mendez has a wonderful world of creating characters that are diverse and compelling in her narrative.
