Voyeurs

Criticas

In his third novel, Mexico-based Cuban writer Jorge merges two separate narratives into a mirror play that makes readers feel like active voyeurs. In the first story, a painter moves to the retired Mexican area of Coyococ in search of artistic freedom, but soon after his arrival he is torn by desire for his new neighbor and longing for the wife he left behind. The second tale revolves around the encounter between Ulises, a balsero ("rafter") trying to escape from Cuba, and the crew of a boat that greets him on the Mexican shore. While the artist's tale is basically a middle-age-crisis account, Ulises's is fantastic and metaphoric. The stories that he shares with the crew evoke dissidents of the Cuban regime, parodying them in settings of famous literary works like The Odyssey or recalling biblical passages, as when a Cuban Magdalene and a Jesus-type character are stoned by an angry crowd shouting, "-Viva Fidel!" Despite its crafted structure and some bright highlights, the book is too irregular. Jorge's baroque style swings abruptly from dark humor to steamy eroticism to deep anti-Castro bitterness but is not always well balanced and often not connected with the central subject of voyeurism. Furthermore, his experiments with language (imitations of old Castilian, for instance) will be a challenge for nonnative speakers. Recommended with reservations for academic libraries and bookstores serving Spanish-speaking readers. Carlos Rodriguez, Brooklyn, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.