Dirty Blonde and Half-Cuban, Lisa Wixon, HarperCollins, 2005, 298 pp
I read this for my One Book At A Time reading group. We all mostly are drawn to a Cuban setting but due to some reviews I read, I had my doubts this time. So much so that I almost skipped the whole enterprise. I am glad I didn't.
The writing is not great, at least for a novel format. As it turns out, the author had a series on Salon.com called "Havana Honey," loosely based on her experiences in Cuba. She developed that into a novel which explains the writing style to me.
Alysia Briggs, a privileged American young woman, bound for college and a career in diplomacy, had made a death bed promise to her mother to find her real father, who is Cuban. The summer before starting college she decides to go and fulfill her promise. At the time, travel between America and Cuba is heavily restricted but her American "father" pulls some strings.
Alysia arrives in Cuba and all the cash she brought with her is promptly stolen. Because she is on a two month student visa, she is not allowed to have a job. She quickly learns that not much in Cuba is as it seems, that many women (and men) have a second job as sex workers, and she ends up joining them as a way to make some cash. She makes a friend who is a surgeon by day, earning less than $100 a week, and is one of the "jineteras" on the side. The woman becomes her mentor. Their clients are wealthy tourists.
In some ways the novel is a companion to my recently read Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn. Except while that book was sad this one is more lighthearted. Eventually I got involved in all of Alysia's adventures as she learned the trade while continuing to search for her real father.
Most of all I liked the story for its look into what life in Cuba was like in the early 2000s. It was eye-opening! I also learned that not all sex workers are abused slaves, as the news would suggest. Not that I don't abhor the practice of indentured women; I do. However, since the beginning of time, women have practiced prostitution as a solution to making a living. I have decided that the distinction is worth making. In any case, what has happened to the Cuban people is the bigger crime.
Once again I took a chance on a book and came away with new knowledge about the world.
Though, as you point out, the writing may not be great, the plot sounds fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out, not all prostitution is akin to slavery but a lot of it is. I like books that look at the world in a complex way and this books sounds like it does that.
Actually the plot was predictable but the world in which it was set surely was complex!
DeleteI love reading about books that are set in other countries as I always learn a little something new about the world!
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteInteresting title and an interesting concept. Too bad the writing didn't measure up.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the writing did not matter that much. I am not sure how that happened or what it means, except that maybe it was not that bad. There are many ways to tell a story.
DeleteYou said $100 a week, but it is not in USD but pesos, which is actually a misery. The most Cuban workers earn in a month is closed to $25 USD, some not even that much. Your last sentence is the most powerful message that you may have gotten from this book.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I stand corrected. Thank you for noticing my last sentence.
DeleteI think it's sad, though, that this book went in a lighthearted way about prostitution in Cuba to make ends meet, a.k.a., as a means of survival. Some minors do it for a platter of food, or for a sandwich and a soda, which it's not only outrageous but horrible, with those same foreigners that are forbidden from doing it in their countries of origin. The professionals that do it I doubt very much that do it for fun. That demeans Cuban people and enhances the mystique of a terrible regime that has dragged through the mud the values of the Cuban people.
DeleteI am sorry if I gave the impression that the book is lighthearted. It is not, it is only more lighthearted than Here Comes the Sun. Not all the jineteras were ok with what they did, none of them saw it as more than a (many times)unpleasant way to make ends meet or to get ahead. But some of them had a sense of humor about it and all of them loved their country.
DeleteIt sounds like the privileged American young woman surely makes a leap while in Cuba. It seems it would be eye-opening finding out more about life there.
ReplyDeleteLife in Cuba is not what we in America have been told.
DeleteThis sounds like an interesting book to read!! I will add it to my ever growing reading wishlist.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can get to it someday.
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