Two More Reads for the Collection

This week's entry is Dancing to "Almendra" by Mayra Montero, a Cuban columnist and writer from Puerto Rico. Set in 1957 Havana, it's somewhat of a mystery, as a young Cuban journalist sets out to connect the killing of an escaped hippopotamus from the Havana Zoo to the murder of Anastasia in the barber's chair in New York. The seemingly farfetched connection leads to the nest of Mafiosi running the casinos in Havana and, seemingly, the corrupt government. Luciano, Trafficante, Lansky, and even Anastasia, all make token appearances. It's got's one armed courtesans, a leprous dance director, circus types, as well as the requisite motifs of the 21st century. I'll let you guess what those are. It all ends in a surprise of sorts. My one concern with this one is that it may color the average person's impression of preCastro Cuba. As my mother once said of the Havana scene in The Godfather, "que despretigio." It was interesting, not a bad read.

For the next one, I'll dig back into 1994, when as far as I can tell, it was last published. A New York Times "Notable Book" and bestseller, it is still available at some libraries and at Amazon. I was reminded of it by the celebrations for La Virgen de la Caridad, when someone called her Ochun. In Alex Abella's Killing of the Saints, Charlie Morrell is called to investigate some particularly brutal slayings at a jewelry store in LA. Before you can say, "Babalao," he finds himself confronting centuries old African beliefs at work. It is a page turner, which will have you believing the near unbelievable. Read it. One of the movie studios picked it up years ago, but I don't think they've ever made the movie.