LOB Book Club - Part Deux
Okay, so I fell asleep at the wheel on Friday. My apologies to all. The consensus seems to be that we all had trouble stopping reading after 3 chapters. I have to concur - a good sign!
So what did you lads think? I like the premise of the father and daughter travelling back to Cuba and the story being told from his point of view through flashbacks. I would like the daughter's point of view to be examined later in the book, but so far it doesn't seem likely.
Whall we read the next 4 chapters and discuss on Wednesday? Thursday?
Discuss!
posted by Bivalve88 @ 9:36 AM
7 Comments:
Sounds good.
I agree that the flashbacks are a good device and set the novel in a particular time. I wonder if the underworld of the time will feature. I've read a history of the mob's influence on pre-revolutionary modern Cuba and it was pretty huge.
Hi all. I'm down in Florida this week visiting Karen and attending a conference. That may slow down my reading pace, but I'll try to keep up. I'm currently at the start of Chapter Six. Lots to chew over.
The flashbacks work for me too. I was intrigued right at the start by the narrator's (Billy Bryan's) comment about his teenage daughter Cassy on page 3:
"I can remember walking the fields out in the back of our house and talking to God about her, wishing her to be plain. Please, let her be a plain girl, a plain Jane. I was convinced only that would keep her safe in this world."
This struck me as an unusual thought for a parent, but as I don't have kids, I'll leave it to you two to comment.
As I got into the period chapter, I too was influenced in my thinking by TJ English's "Havana Nocturne," which I read on Gooner's suggestion a couple of months ago. But I'm heartened that Wendel seems less interested in the mob control of Havana and more interested in Cuban politics, music and culture.
I'm also influenced by recently seeing the first part of the Soderberg epic about Che. I'll leave that thought for another message, though.
Perhaps the plain Jane thought is more for a father with a daughter. Only having a son, the issue has never arisen.
I can comment on the "plain Jane" comment. I totally agree with him! Each time a daughter was born and was beautiful, both Bill and I looked at each other and said, "we're screwed". Julianne even had a 4-year-old stalker in preschool. (Okay, technically not a stalker, but an incredibly pushy, controlling, and manipulative classmate who was completely infatuated with her. We dubbed him "the stalker". It was incredibly creepy.) It makes for many sleepless nights, let me assure you.
Wow - okay, that seems a fair point then.
So, here's a comment and question about Chapter 1. On page 15, Billy describes his relationship with the Cuban native third baseman for the Lions Oscar:
"Oscar also was a great host. He didn't meddle in my business and kept most of his opinions to himself. Only occasionally he talked about politics. Usually I had to wait until he was a bit drunk, sitting out on his front proch, after his kids had gone to sleep. Only then would Oscar tell me how Grau was president only because Fulgencio Batista had retired to Daytona Beach."
I can attest from my time in Japan that finding one's place as an ex-pat is a delicate thing and that wading into unwanted political conversations is usually a bad idea. However, is it legitimate to ignore and avoid the obvious elephant in the room here - the U.S.'s treatment of Cubans and Cuba in the 50s?
So far-- up to chapter 8, the protagonist seems interested in furthering his baseball career and attracting Fidel's female photographer side-kick.
And if you were a minor league baseball player eaking out a living in pre-revolution Cuba, as a foreigner to boot, not meddling in dangerous politics would seem to be a good path to follow. The dangerous factionalism that preceded Fidel's army of the Sierra Madre has already been introduced when the protagonist and the woman had to hide in the bushes while being fired upon.
It's more believable that a ball-player would be more concerned about his own career too. Replace him with Clint Dempsey. You expect Nagadoches Ice to sport a "Justice for Binyam Mohamed" tee-shirt under his kit any time soon?
No, I think that that's a fair point. I'm not sure that the likes of Danny Murphy would be agitating on Binyam's case anyway.
But, if using the Clint Dempsey example, the British public was upset about some aspect some U.S. policy and this opinion was reflected within the Fulham dressing room, why shouldn't Clint give at least a sympathetic ear to their concerns?
From our reading of the TJ English book, we know that the U.S. government was complicit with the mob in raping and pillaging Cuba in the 50s. The Cubans, while they didn't coalesce their opinions until the end of the decade, were obviously pissed. So why not give his teammate Oscar a fair hearing?
Post a Comment
<< Home