Ruins

by Achy Obejas

Book Overview

"Daring, tough, and deeply compassionate, Achy Obejas's Ruins is a breathtaker. Obejas writes like an angel, which is to say: gloriously . . . one of Cuba's most important writers." --Junot D az, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

" An] honest and superbly written book." --Miami Herald

Usnavy has always been a true believer. When the Cuban Revolution triumphed in 1959, he was just a young man and eagerly signed on for all of its...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933354690
• ISBN13: 9781933354699
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd.
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

"You're afraid to imagine our greatness as Cubans because you can't imagine your own."

Set in 1994, when Cuba allowed its citizens to leave the country for the United States on anything that would float, Ruins, by Achy Obejas is a touching, close-up look at one man and his family and how he represents the life of the failed revolution of 1959. Like his countrymen, Usnavy Martin Leyva, named for the ships outside his mother's house near Guantanamo Bay, has always lived in the shadow of the United States, ninety tantalizing miles away. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, Usnavy truly believes in the revolution and in the revolutionary songs sung by elementary school children. An honest man working at a bodega where the shelves are bare and he has to tell people with ration cards that there is no bread or eggs or milk, he is fair to all, not rewarding friends at the expense of the rest of the poor. Though he has friends who have offered him a chance to escape with them to the US, he refuses, telling his best friend that "This is my dream." The brightest spot in Usnavy's life, apart from his daughter, is an enormous multi-colored dome lamp, a huge lamp anchored to the ceiling of his tiny house, so big that if the wind blew it, it would hit the side walls. Inherited from his mother, the lamp may be a Tiffany lamp, but Usnavy has never sought to find out. On the night that his best friend departs for the US, Usnavy pauses on his way home where he see some of his neighbors scavenging at a collapsed construction site. Repelled by the activity, he is nevertheless hypnotized when he sees some colored glass winking at him from afar. Digging at the site of the beautiful glass reflections, he finds a small lamp, perhaps a Tiffany lamp, broken, but interesting, and possibly valuable enough to bring him a few dollars. His quest to fix the little lamp brings him into contact with glass artisans, and he gradually learns the history of Louis Tiffany and his relationship with the island. Tiffany was hired to decorate the Presidential Palace, but if he designed a lamp for the entrance it was never delivered. If it exists it would be the "Cuban Holy Grail." Poet Achy Obejas creates a vibrant but sad picture of life among the Cuban populace through Usnavy, her Everyman. The emotions conjured in this book are intense, though the action is limited to the everyday life of Usnavy as he tries to live a real life within a revolutionary framework that he will not admit has failed him. Because of its intense personal focus, Usnavy's emotional struggle resembles drama more than typical fiction, and it is easy to imagine the six parts of this novel as six scenes from a play--one which ensnares its audience in the life of a man trying to keep believing in a dream which has failed, an experience which can only be evaluated in terms of classical tragedy. With its compressed imagery and symbolism, and its dark vision of life as it may still exist today, Ruins by Achy Obejas is a memorable addition to "Cuban noir." n Mary Whipple Days of

Evocative, heartbreaking and haunting.

I don't know how Obejas manages to convey so much in so few pages. Probably it's her deft layering of images and metaphors, in this compact novel where Havana, Cuba is as much a character as anyone who speaks and moves. Usnavy is a 50-something true believer of the Cuban revolution, who is pushed beyond his limits, physically and spiritually, as he tries to stay true to his ideals against a tidal wave of defection, without betraying his family. All this and there's also an intriguing mystery/storyline about a lamp. The characters and Cuba come to life in drenched, cinematic color. I strongly recommend this book for people who are interested in Latin America and the Caribbean, those who love a good tale, fans of international fiction, people who read Hemingway, fans of the Buena Vista Social Club, romantics, dreamers, and lovers of gripping and poetic writing.

Splendid Ruins

Clear & evocative prose, a ponderous yet exuberant narration & an evocative deployment of sign & symbol highlight this timely bit of storytelling. Indeed, this young man, Usnavy, powerfully channels the resonance of an island's layered history. Specifically, the happenstance here ( & Obejas surely ensconces the reader in the "here" & "now" even as she draws lucid connection between what was & what is), of insurrection & imposition, nationalization, isolation & circumscription, duly illuminate history's true toll. That is, its power to dictate not only our protagonist's sense of self, but what he believes; where he sets his aim; the parameters of dismay; the vast horizon stretching forth beyond the sea, observed from the occupied shores of possibility; who, what, how, why, he loves.

The Quiet Cuban

Cuban writer Achy Obejas' novel Ruins is beautifully written, and an incredibly humanistic portrayal of one man's life in Cuba. Born before the Cuban revolution, and named after the U.S. Navy ships his mother can see from shore close to Guantanamo (a U.S. base already there since 1898), Usnavy is destined to live a life under shadow of the United States, both its lure and its warning. He never waivers from being a true believer in Cuba, and in all that Che Guevara promised the revolution would bring for the downtrodden of Cuba, but present times are testing his faith. Set in 1994, Usnavy reveals details of his life before the revolution, a life of degradation and hopelessness. His consequent embracing of the Revolution makes perfect sense: "It was because of the Revolution..that he could participate as a responsible member of society, as good as anyone else. It was because of the Revolution, he believed, that he wasn't dismissed as some hick from the hills. It was because of the Revolution that the lifeline on his hand had been rerouted, that he was born every day a New Man." But Usnavy's life is very hard. He works every day at a bodega, fulfilling the ration cards of the people who line up for goods: "soap was scarce, coffee rare; no one could remember the last time there was meat. Sometimes all he had was rice, or worse, those detestable peas used to supplement beans, or when ground up, used as a coffee substitute." He lives in one room with his beloved wife and daughter, a room without windows and with a floor always wet with leaks. The communal bathroom of the tenement is found by the swarm of flies that envelop it, and with every rainfall the danger of the entire building collapsing threatens. Every day more and more Cubans take to the sea, escaping to America. When good friends leave, Usnavy becomes fearful that his own daughter will be next, drawn by the good fortunes of those who made it the ninety miles across the sea, and repelled by her father's own "salao", bad luck. Usnavy owns a magnificent lamp, huge and glowing with varied colors of light from its many panels of decorative glass. Left to him as the only legacy from his mother, the lamp reminds Usnavy of all that is beautiful and possible in his world, and it connects him to the past, his mother and his Jamaican father (long ago disappeared at sea). But one day Usnavy makes a discovery that connects him and his lamp to the history of Cuba itself. Keeping the lamp and himself whole becomes a parable for the future of Cuba as Che dreamed of it: will the need for dollars overwhelm Usnavy or will the lifeblood of the lamp sustain him in his faith? There are both incredible and quiet details in Ruins about daily life in Cuba: his daughter's dinner of a meat sandwich but it is only wool marinated in spices, "the texture of the wool had been transformed into what they all imagined steak was like, something tender and chewy"; Usnavy's three pairs of underwear, one to we

Captivating...

This is an extraordinary book about an almost ordinary man and the many ways people find to escape their everyday constraints. I loved it. The language is gripping, the characters feel real, and the plot turns small things into wonderfully suspenseful events. This is a book about Cuba, but it will resonate with anyone who has ever found themselves doubting the things they have most believed.