Padura Fuentes — one of Cuba's best-known and most widely acclaimed writers — has written a first-rate detective story set against the backdrop of Hemingway's Cuba. Part fascinating examination of Hemingway the man in his trying final years and part nifty postmodern procedural, Adios Hemingway will engross Hemingway fans while keeping them in suspense until the final pages.
Adios Hemingway I haven 't read the book yet but the quality of the book and the delivery of it was superb.
For Hemingway aficionados only This mystery novel by a popular Cuban writer involves a dead body discovered on Hemingway's property (Finca Vigia) in Cuba. The hero, a retired police inspector, had once been a Hemingway fan but has become disillusioned about the famous writer for various reasons. The novel proceeds somewhat ploddingly as the inspector has to be persuaded to take the case; he then wanders around visting his old "colorful' friends and finally makes it to the Villa itself (now a museum. The novel takes place in the present. The body, recently exhumed, has been in the ground many years. Hemingway himself is presented in flashbacks). Even though he has been dead these many years, Hemingway becomes a suspect in the killing. The novel wanders to an end and features an amusing take on Ava Gardner's "knickers." It's hard to tell if the novel is well written because the translation is execrable. One sample: "He went to the bathroom adjoining his bedroom and opened his flies." I gave it three stars because I am a Hemingway fan and the passages describing the great writer's last days in Cuba, his health problems , his relations with the natives were of interest.
Clever and enjoyable for those who appreciate Papa The Cuban atmospherics and the Hemingwayesque mixture of facts and myths make for a quick uncomplicated mystery. Who would not want to know how Ava Gardner's black panties found their way into this tale? Or, would you not want to entertain a reason why Papa hurriedly left the island to find his way to suicide in Ketchum, Idaho? Read it as fiction, enjoy it and let your mind wander to the possibilities.
Different This is the first book I've read by Fuentes. It's short, quite delightful but, as the writer explains in the foreward, more about Hemingway in his last days in Cuba than a detective story. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more had this not been the first time I'm reading Fuentes.
Perspectives on Papa Not having read any Cuban fiction, I gave this a try.
It took me in, not only to Cuban life (for which I craved more description) but to the Hemingway portrait. It's been years since I've read a Hemingway novel or a bio. (although I read one on Hadley last year that was very kind to him). The portrait that is presented (through a clever weaving of past and present) is plausible to the mystery and to the man himself.
Credit must be given to the translator, as well as a very creative author. Like a previous Amazon reviewer, I'd like to read more of this author.
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