In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd | 
 enlarge | Author: Ana Menendez
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 1396043
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0802116884
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780802116888
ASIN: 0802116884
Publication Date: May 10, 2001
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Condition: Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Product Description
Already sold in eight countries around the world, In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd is a hypnotic debut collection of linked tales about the attempts of immigrants to make new lives in America, by Cuban-American Pushcart Prize winner Ana Menendez. A lush, generous storyteller, Menendez effortlessly summons up grand, novelistic themes in her short stories: the hopes and disappointments of postrevolutionary Castro Cuba, the comfort and terror of Havana in all its beauty and sadness, the cultural ties that bind family, the contrast between people's dreams and reality. Seldom has an author captured so palpably the sting and regret of lives caught in the crosswinds of history. Menendez's prize-winning title story, a masterpiece of humor and heartbreak, introduces four aging Cubans who gather regularly to play dominoes in a Miami sidewalk park. More important than this game is their competition to tell the best joke of the day, and anecdotes fly about fellow countrymen who have immigrated for the American dream. In a wrenching twist, the ultimate joke strips bare the devastating truth that lies beneath the veneer of their game. From this opening story and its characters unfolds a series of family snapshots that illuminate the landscape of an exiled community rich in heritage and memory, and longing for the past. The tales are often at once comical and dark, as in "The Perfect Fruit," in which a mother is driven into an apocalyptic, frenzied cooking spree, using every last banana from the overgrown tree in her backyard; at other times they are deeply disturbing, as in "Miami Relatives," which depicts a family's escalating, surreal nightmare, fueled by the portrait and family stories of "the old uncle in Cuba" who refuses to die. With the subtle pacing of Lorrie Moore and the rich descriptiveness of Laura Esquivel, Ana Menendez charts her own territory from Havana to Coral Gables with unforgettable passion and explores whether any of us are capable, or even truly desirous, of outrunning our origins.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Beautifully written, but repetitive December 12, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a collection of short stories, all of which involve Cuban expatriates, and many of which have characters in common. All the stories have a tone of melancholy or even desperation, and all deal with themes of loss--loss of husbands, wives, parents, and children, and especially, loss of a homeland. Each story makes beautiful use of language, but they are mostly the sort of stories in which nothing much really happens: a husband can't sleep because he imagines that his wife is unfaithful, a woman waits to see if her husband will survive the raft trip from Cuba, and so on. While I enjoyed each story, I found the collection as a whole repetitive. By the end, I didn't think that the stories had anything new to say.
A Varied Collection of Variable Quality March 1, 2005
These eleven short stories with recurring characters range from the comic opener to the darkly sinister "The Perfect Fruit" to the almost Argentine magical realism of "Miami Relatives." There are many flashes of brilliance, such as this from "Miami Relatives":
"The Aunt Julia climbs to the top of the table and holds her arms out for silence. 'Today I ate the sun,' she says. 'The darkness was delicious.' We sit staring at her until she opens her mouth and blinds us."
Or the story "The Last Rescue" which is a fevered depiction of insomnia.
However these moments arrive as flashes precisely because the surrounding text is less bright, less interesting, less illuminated by insight. Long stretches seem strained or uninspired. Perhaps, not being Cuban-American, I cannot relate to the experiences related by the author but my general impression is that the book was somewhat uneven.
 Not my kind of book July 13, 2003
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I can definitely see how some people would enjoy this book, but it didn't do much for me. I felt some stories were too long winded, especially the one where the husband is having a sleepless night and keeps worrying about his wife's faithfulness to him. It was torture trying to get through that and other stories. Sure, the author could write beautifully, but I didn't feel like I learned anything from the stories or the novel as a whole. A disappointing read.
 Amazing Imagery January 10, 2003
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book completely caught me off guard with its beautifully still scenes of intense imagery. I can't recommend this book enough to people who love authors who have almost a lyrical style. The plot is complex and many of the chapters seem to suspend time in the air. Not arrogant or showy at all, the book is intricately beautiful and a phenomenal piece of art.
A voice for a people of exile December 12, 2002
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Ana Menendez does a fantastic job expressing life as an immigrant. Through humor and uncanny examples and spanish phrases any Cuban is all too familiar with, she brings a sense of nostalgia with her words that reach and communicate not only to the Cuban people but to any group of people anywhere in the world. Fantastic read!
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