Anna Veltfort

An American lesbian comes of age in 1960s Cuba under its revolutionary but homophobic regime. It should be a fascinating story, but if this book were a person they would have an affectless face and a monotone voice. The narration just drones on and on dropping dozens of names of minor historical figures and mentioning lots of government departments and programs, numbing me to the human story squeezed tightly between the giant captions with Fidel Castro's speeches. Frankly, by my reading, the emotional highpoint of the book seems to come when Veltfort gets a refrigerator with an icemaker rather than any of her farewells to family or lovers.

Passable history, disappointing memoir.… (altro)