Daína Chaviano
Auteur de The Island of Eternal Love
A propos de l'auteur
Séries
Œuvres de Daína Chaviano
Los hijos de la Diosa Huracán / The Goddess Hurricane's Children (Spanish Edition) (2019) 13 exemplaires
Fábulas de una abuela extraterrestre / Fables from An Extraterrestrial Grandmother (2002) 4 exemplaires
Contactos 1 exemplaire
The Annunciation (short story) 1 exemplaire
Amoroso planeta 1 exemplaire
Accursed Lineage {short story} 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994) — Contributeur — 255 exemplaires
Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Latin America and Spain (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (2003) — Contributeur — 71 exemplaires
Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction and Fantasy (2017) — Contributeur — 43 exemplaires
The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5 (Apex World of Speculative Fiction) (2018) — Contributeur — 40 exemplaires
Pleasure in the Word : Erotic Writing by Latin American Women (1993) — Contributeur — 34 exemplaires
Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women (2023) — Contributeur — 17 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom canonique
- Chaviano, Daína
- Date de naissance
- 1957
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- Cuba (birth)
- Lieu de naissance
- Havana, Cuba
- Lieux de résidence
- Miami, Florida, USA
- Études
- University of Havana (BA|English Language and Literature)
- Professions
- Writer
- Courte biographie
- Born in Havana (Cuba), she is considered one of the three most important fantasy and science fiction writers in the Spanish language, along with Angélica Gorodischer (Argentina) and Elia Barceló (Spain), forming the so-called “feminine trinity of science fiction in Latin America.” In Cuba, she published several science fiction and fantasy books, becoming the most renowned and best-selling author in those genres in Cuban literature. Since leaving the island, she has distinguished herself with a series of novels incorporating historical and more contemporary matters as well as mythological and fantastic elements. In 1991 she left Cuba, establishing residency in the United States. In 1998 she achieved international recognition when she was awarded the Azorín Prize for Best Novel in Spain for ''El hombre, la hembra y el hambre''. This work forms part of her series «The Occult Side of Havana», whose last novel ("The Island of Eternal Love")' has been published in 25 languages, making it the most widely translated Cuban novel of all time.
Membres
Critiques
(La Habana oculta 04) La isla de los amores infinitos par Daína Chaviano
Tres familias de orígenes y culturas dispares protagonizan esta apasionante saga de emigrantes que recalan en Cuba y cuyos destinos a lo largo de más de 150 años correrán parejos con los de la bella isla. Desde el Miami actual, la historia retrocede hasta 1856, cuando entran en contacto los personajes, procedentes de China, España y África, y surge el amor, que hallará una mágica continuidad un siglo más tarde. Una hermosa historia de esperanzas y sueños rotos, de nostalgia, exilio y amores unidos por el destino.… (plus d'informations)
En la Cuba de hoy, dos amigos conversan sobre sus problemas. Ambos rememoran los momentos pasados junto a dos mujeres a quienes han perdido de vista, pero cyo misterioso atractivo dejó en ellos una huella profunda. Una es Claudia quien, a pesar de su educacion atea, tiene experiencias paranormales. La otra es una enigmática prostituta, mujer de pocas palabras y mirada perdida. Todos ellos, miembros de una generacion obsesionada por encontrarse a sí misma, sobreviven en una ciudad arruinada. Pero lejos de sucumbir a la desesperación, estos hombres y mujeres albergan una extraña esperanza: la que nace del poder de la fabulación y la magia para crear otra realidad.… (plus d'informations)
Se lo cambio a Paula, grupo Facebook - noviembre 2020
Latin American literature is famous for the genre of magical realism, but this was really only "magical" (and how I wish I meant that as a euphemism for "good"). It blends myths and concepts of magic from the Spanish, African and Chinese cultures that contributed to making Cuba, placing this hybridised concept of magic even in present-day Miami, which could potentially be interesting, but in this book it's not.
To be honest, most of this book is not interesting. As the blurb will tell you, the novel begins when reclusive Cuban emigrant Cecilia is dragged out of the house by two male friends who she ditches to meet an old woman, Amalia, at a Miami bar. The book is made up of short chapters that alternate between telling Amalia's entire family history and Cecilia's very boring, mundane existence.
Basically, Cecilia is a journalist and she is investigating some ghost house, since apparently she works for the kind of publication where a ghost house is a valid idea for a story. She gets involved in a lot of kooky New Age stuff and she also, at some point, meets a guy (Roberto) who is a rich businessman who just can't stop talking about his successful business and also, all the businesses he will open in Cuba once his profit-minded family can return. Cecilia doesn't even like him that much but she's devastated when he dumps her, to the point that she develops a psychosomatic illness that she is able to banish just by willing her blood pressure to go down. Hmmm…
Amalia's family history is more interesting, but still not that great. The characters aren't very well realised; they mostly just kind of blur together and I had to keep referring to the family trees in the first few pages because I just could not remember who had done what, or even who was who. Also, guess what, (almost) everyone was a successful small business owner. It was very unrealistic.
So we come to the other reason I didn't like this book – in addition to the badly realised characters, the awkward pacing, and so on, it was kind of right-wing. When early on it talks about shortages (Cecilia's musing that she'd never had hot chocolate in Cuba), the US embargo goes unmentioned. Later, you have the clairvoyant Delfina claiming that the failure of the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion will be the greatest tragedy ever to befall Cuba, you have one of the small-business-owning (actually by this time, franchise-chain-owning) characters whingeing that he supported the rebels and don't they understand that private property is sacrosanct… blah blah blah blah blah. Over the entire book, Cecilia alternately conceives of Cuba as hell or else a once-beautiful country trashed and burned by criminals. This is frustrating. Mostly, it's just so damned shallow. I'm not trying to say it shouldn't have criticised Castro's regime at all – the pettiness making emigrants wait years for their exit permits, the stifling of dissent, persecution and harassment of dissidents etc. are all important – but any analysis of Cuba that states that the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion was the greatest tragedy ever to befall Cuba is just trash. I mean, it's also a book largely set among the Cuban emigrant milieu in Miami written by a Cuban emigrant, so maybe I'm expecting a bit much from this politically. But like, there is left-wing criticism of the Castro regime and there is right-wing criticism, and I wasn't expecting this book to be so far to the right (the blurb makes it seem pretty apolitical).
So. Ultimately this is a kind of boring book that serves as a lament to the losses of the old Cuban bourgeoisie, and I did not like it. Unless you have no choice (like you find yourself in an airport where the bookstore has nothing except copies of this?), avoid.… (plus d'informations)
To be honest, most of this book is not interesting. As the blurb will tell you, the novel begins when reclusive Cuban emigrant Cecilia is dragged out of the house by two male friends who she ditches to meet an old woman, Amalia, at a Miami bar. The book is made up of short chapters that alternate between telling Amalia's entire family history and Cecilia's very boring, mundane existence.
Basically, Cecilia is a journalist and she is investigating some ghost house, since apparently she works for the kind of publication where a ghost house is a valid idea for a story. She gets involved in a lot of kooky New Age stuff and she also, at some point, meets a guy (Roberto) who is a rich businessman who just can't stop talking about his successful business and also, all the businesses he will open in Cuba once his profit-minded family can return. Cecilia doesn't even like him that much but she's devastated when he dumps her, to the point that she develops a psychosomatic illness that she is able to banish just by willing her blood pressure to go down. Hmmm…
Amalia's family history is more interesting, but still not that great. The characters aren't very well realised; they mostly just kind of blur together and I had to keep referring to the family trees in the first few pages because I just could not remember who had done what, or even who was who. Also, guess what, (almost) everyone was a successful small business owner. It was very unrealistic.
So we come to the other reason I didn't like this book – in addition to the badly realised characters, the awkward pacing, and so on, it was kind of right-wing. When early on it talks about shortages (Cecilia's musing that she'd never had hot chocolate in Cuba), the US embargo goes unmentioned. Later, you have the clairvoyant Delfina claiming that the failure of the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion will be the greatest tragedy ever to befall Cuba, you have one of the small-business-owning (actually by this time, franchise-chain-owning) characters whingeing that he supported the rebels and don't they understand that private property is sacrosanct… blah blah blah blah blah. Over the entire book, Cecilia alternately conceives of Cuba as hell or else a once-beautiful country trashed and burned by criminals. This is frustrating. Mostly, it's just so damned shallow. I'm not trying to say it shouldn't have criticised Castro's regime at all – the pettiness making emigrants wait years for their exit permits, the stifling of dissent, persecution and harassment of dissidents etc. are all important – but any analysis of Cuba that states that the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion was the greatest tragedy ever to befall Cuba is just trash. I mean, it's also a book largely set among the Cuban emigrant milieu in Miami written by a Cuban emigrant, so maybe I'm expecting a bit much from this politically. But like, there is left-wing criticism of the Castro regime and there is right-wing criticism, and I wasn't expecting this book to be so far to the right (the blurb makes it seem pretty apolitical).
So. Ultimately this is a kind of boring book that serves as a lament to the losses of the old Cuban bourgeoisie, and I did not like it. Unless you have no choice (like you find yourself in an airport where the bookstore has nothing except copies of this?), avoid.… (plus d'informations)
Listes
Prix et récompenses
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Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 16
- Aussi par
- 6
- Membres
- 259
- Popularité
- #88,671
- Évaluation
- 3.7
- Critiques
- 10
- ISBN
- 53
- Langues
- 9
- Favoris
- 1
