A review by ombudsman
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García

2.0

i liked this but i did feel lost a lot of the time, mostly at the end. (which i think was intentional on some level, but i wasn't really a fan.) i almost should have anticipated that: this is a novel where many of the characters are at some point in the novel lost in a manic episode. and that is a structure that holds throughout the novel - all of the characters dabble in some sort of fantasy

Spoiler

, whether it is celia's love letters, utterly removed from the everyday but still possible, felicia's religious devotion (not that santeria is in itself manic but even the other santeros are worried by the summer of coconuts), or lourdes' conversations with her dead father

. it's a book about the extreme, and accordingly centres itself on mania.