The Lazarus Rumba A Novel

by Dillman, Lisa

• ISBN13: 9780312263522
• ISBN10: 031226352X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-14
• Publisher: Picador
• More Book Details
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Summary

This extraordinarily ambitious novel sets out to portray the spiritual landscape of the Cuban people in the wake of Castro's revolutionary upheaval. The novel centers around three generations of women in the Lucientes family and follows the story of Alicia Lucientes as, almost inadvertently, she becomes the most famous dissident on the island.As intensely political as Manuel Puig's KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN and G. Cabrera Infanta's THREE TRAPPED TIGERS, this is a modern tale rooted in recent historical events but filtered through a richly entertaining storytelling style that pays homage to THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. THE LAZARUS RUMBA is a stunning literary debut, a virtuoso performance that announces a major new literary talent.AUTHORBIO: Ernesto Mestre was born in Guantanamo, Cuba in 1964.His family emigrated to Madrid, Spain in 1972, and later that year to Miami, Florida.He graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in English Literature and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Author Biography

Ernesto Mestre was born in Cuba in 1964. His family emigrated to Spain in 1972, and later that year to Miami, Florida. He graduate from Tulane University and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. This is his first novel.

Table of Contents

Genealogies	xv
Characters	xvii
Map of Cuba	xx
Prologue: One Dance	1	(4)
Book One: A Widow's Grief: An Old Tale
Chapter One
The Rumbas in Beethoven's Violin Concerto	5	(20)
A Serpent's Spit	25	(11)
The Widow's Bathwater	36	(6)
Chapter Two
Swimming Without Getting Wet	42	(3)
Invisible Butterflies	45	(5)
Monday Cola	50	(4)
The Sermon of the Seven Kisses	54	(6)
Chapter Three
Berta His Beloved	60	(6)
Nothing More or Less	66	(5)
Guava Milk	71	(6)
The Meat of Castrated Goats	77	(4)
To the Mountain!	81	(10)
Mingo's Dreams Before Dying	91	(6)
Book Two: How the Dead Come Back: The Tale as Rumba
Chapter Four
The Camarita Flirts with Eternity	97	(10)
Senor Sariel	107	(20)
In the Room Lit with a Red Bulb	127	(2)
Carmen Canastas's Tangled New Year's Tale	129	(16)
A Shroud of Papaya Leaves	145	(12)
Chapter Five
Atila and His Resurrected	157	(15)
The Man Who Played His Bones	172	(10)
The Wall & the Prayer-Feathers	182	(7)
Father Jacinto's Great War of the Americas	189	(14)
Demon or Saint	203	(7)
Chapter Six
Seven Against Him	210	(9)
Two Trials	219	(31)
Arrival	250	(13)
The Minister's Visit	263	(6)
Book Three: Exile and the Kingdom of Forgetfulness: A Tale in Tongues
Chapter Seven
Wordeaters	269	(20)
The Isle of Pains	289	(11)
An Odd Request	300	(3)
A Repeated Tale	303	(16)
The Devils in the Clock	319	(6)
Not Like a Prodigal	325	(4)
The Tale of the Tub (Prologue)	329	(18)
Dinner for the New Man	347	(8)
High in the Banyan	355	(9)
An Annunciation	364	(4)
Chapter Eight
Monologue of Triste the Contortionist: The Thirty-Mile Swim	368	(9)
The Name of the One That He Once Loved That She Once Loved	377	(1)
Monologue of Triste the Contortionist: At Lot's Door	377	(18)
Monologue of Triste the Contortionist: The Passion of Comandante Federico Sanchez	395	(17)
Monologue of Triste the Contortionist: The Tale of the Tub	412	(9)
Chapter Nine
Assassination as Birth	421	(15)
Within Alicia's Bohio, in the Colony of the Newer Man	436	(7)
The Ghost in the Yellow Scarf	443	(10)
The Bakery Administrator's Daughter	453	(13)
Chapter Ten
Lamentations	466	(19)
Epilogue: Two Dances	485