3.0
Telex from Cuba
ByPublisher Description
A National Book Award Finalist for Fiction
The debut novel by New York Times bestselling author Rachel Kushner, called “shimmering” (The New Yorker), “multilayered and absorbing” (The New York Times Book Review), and “gorgeously written” (Kirkus Reviews).
Young Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites come of age in pre-revolutionary Cuba, where the American expatriates tend their own fiefdom—three hundred thousand acres of United Fruit Company sugarcane that surround their gated enclave under the shadow of the Batista dictatorship. If the rural tropics are a child's dreamworld, Everly and K.C. nevertheless have keen eyes for the indulgences and betrayals of the grown-ups around them—the mordant drinking and illicit loves, the race hierarchies and violence.
In Havana, a thousand kilometers and a world away from the American colony, a cabaret dancer meets a French agitator named Christian de La Mazière, whose seductive demeanor can’t mask his shameful past. Together they become enmeshed in the brewing revolutionary underground and the political upheaval that will soon transform the island. When Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains above the cane plantation, torching the sugar and kidnapping a boat full of "yanqui" revelers, K.C. and Everly begin to discover the brutality that keeps the colony and its corporate imperialism humming. Though their parents remain blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what is to come.
Kushner’s first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.
The debut novel by New York Times bestselling author Rachel Kushner, called “shimmering” (The New Yorker), “multilayered and absorbing” (The New York Times Book Review), and “gorgeously written” (Kirkus Reviews).
Young Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites come of age in pre-revolutionary Cuba, where the American expatriates tend their own fiefdom—three hundred thousand acres of United Fruit Company sugarcane that surround their gated enclave under the shadow of the Batista dictatorship. If the rural tropics are a child's dreamworld, Everly and K.C. nevertheless have keen eyes for the indulgences and betrayals of the grown-ups around them—the mordant drinking and illicit loves, the race hierarchies and violence.
In Havana, a thousand kilometers and a world away from the American colony, a cabaret dancer meets a French agitator named Christian de La Mazière, whose seductive demeanor can’t mask his shameful past. Together they become enmeshed in the brewing revolutionary underground and the political upheaval that will soon transform the island. When Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains above the cane plantation, torching the sugar and kidnapping a boat full of "yanqui" revelers, K.C. and Everly begin to discover the brutality that keeps the colony and its corporate imperialism humming. Though their parents remain blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what is to come.
Kushner’s first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.
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3.0
“An engrossing story about the terrible things we did in Cuba before Castro’s revolution. Let’s be clear, the U.S (and specifically the United Fruit Company) are the colonizers, and we are awful. But the genius of the story is that the tale is told (at least initially) from the perspective of children who are figuring the circumstances out. What is bad? What is justified? What is human?
The story follows many different characters. I often found myself getting confused about who was who and who I was currently with. But for the most part, I didn’t need to know those details. Once I let those concerns go, I could just follow the flow and get lost in what was happening. Sometimes funny, sometimes brutal, always interesting - Telex From Cuba was a really good read.”
“Loved this novel about Cuba from a pre and post revolution viewpoint. The author fully developed the characters and I really enjoyed reading this historical fiction novel. But different from my norm.”
About Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner is the author of the New York Times bestseller Creation Lake, her latest novel; The Hard Crowd, her acclaimed essay collection; and the internationally bestselling novels The Mars Room, The Flamethrowers, and Telex from Cuba, as well as a book of short stories, The Strange Case of Rachel K. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, and was twice a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award in Fiction. Creation Lake was also longlisted for the National Book Award. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.
Other books by Rachel Kushner
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