El color del verano, o, Nuevo "Jardín de las delicias" : novela escrita y publicada sin privilegio imperial

Es pleno verano y en la isla de Cuba comienza el gran carnaval que festejalos cincuenta años en el poder de Fifo, dictador ya viejo y enloquecido. Conagilidad y sarcasmo, en un relato lleno de divertidos guiños al lector,Reinaldo Arenas describe ora los actos desaforados que se han programadoen homenaje al tirano, ora, y en palabras del propio autor, «la vidasubterránea de una juventud desgarrada, erotizada, rebelde y a vecesenvilecida», pero que se niega a aceptar la prisión en que se ha convertidola isla. Los atropellos y luchas de los que se arriman al poder, lastriquiñuelas para sobrevivir en la miseria y la represión, todo estalla durantela gran fiesta, y en medio del bullicio se desencadenan los deseos másdesinhibidos, los rencores, las intrigas y el miedo. Porque, entre burlas yveras, El color del verano, novela testimonial, narra el horror —de quienvive en Cuba, pero también el exiliado— y la imposibilidad de acceder a unfuturo mejor. Critics worldwide have praised Reinaldo Arenas's writing. His extraordinary memoir, *Before Night Falls*, was named one of the fourteen "Best Books of 1993" by the editors of *The New York Times Book Review* and has now been made into a major motion picture. *The Color of Summer*, Arenas's finest comic achievement, is also the fulfillment of his life's work, the *Pentagonía*, a five-volume cycle of novels he began writing in his early twenties. Although it is the penultimate installment in his "secret history of Cuba," it was, in fact, the last book Arenas wrote before his death in 1990. A Rabelaisian tale of survival by wits and wit, *The Color of Summer* is ultimately a powerful and passionate story about the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of political and sexual repression. **From Publishers Weekly** Reinaldo Arenas was the cursed visionary of late 20th-century Cuban literature, imprisoned by Castro and shunned by pro-Cuba leftist intellectuals in this country after he came over in the Mariel boatlift. His open queerness shocked his contemporaries. This novel is the fourth in a cycle of five novels, dubbed the *Pentagonia* (the fifth in the series, *The Assault*, was published in 1994). It operates on a number of levels, like a noisy and particularly chaotic party. The most straightforward segment of the plot concerns the tyrant Fifo's 50th-anniversary celebration. It is typical of the grandiose, bloated Fifo that it is actually the 40th anniversary of the revolution -- Fifo even lies about arithmetic. The island over which Fifo presides is a vast, groaning prison, dotted by real prisons, like El Morro, where Arenas was actually imprisoned. Fifo keeps control with an army of midgets and a flotilla of sharks that circle the island and prevent anyone from escaping. However, the island queens (mercilessly hunted by Fifo's minions, although Fifo and most of his court have dabbled in men) have been nibbling away at the base of the island, trying to unmoor it. On another level, this is Arenas's autobiography. His character has three names: Skunk in a Funk, his queer nom de guerre; Gabriel, the writer; and Reinaldo, the real person. The tripartite division of his character, and of others, entails dizzying changes of gender and jumps between levels of reality. Arenas has a nice vaudevillian touch, scattering scabrous reference to recent events and people as he bounces from skit to skit. A chapter entitled "The Confession of H. Puntilla" is modeled on the real recantation of Heberto Padilla in 1971, with anatomically impossible flourishes. Unfortunately, the flood of Cuban marginalia makes this book, at times, almost indecipherable for the non-Cuban reader. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. **From Library Journal** The fourth of Arenas's five-novel cycle (begun with *Singing from the Well*) and the last piece of fiction he wrote before his suicide in 1990, this is a magnificent roman X clef. Lamentably, the vagaries of publishing and the translator!s own timetable delayed publication of this shattering testimonial novel until after the 1999 it foretells. In honor of his 50th year in power, a Caribbean dictator named Fifo engineers a grand cultural gala featuring the greatest stars of Cuban literature. Gertrudis GUmez de Avellaneda, whose verse Cuban schoolchildren learn by heart, is resurrected from the dead but, refusing to take part in the charade, makes a run for Key West. Fifo repudiates her by having a procession of characters intone doggerel testimonials that Arenas refashions for them from the greatest lines of their prose and verse. Homosexuality, the tragicomedy of Cuban politics, the church, the mother-son relationship, salaried work, and even the weather are metaphors the author uses to portray the larger, all-inclusive struggle of power vs. freedom. The human spirit, Arenas argues, is capable of irreverent humor in even the worst situations and indeed must be given free rein if beauty is to be brought into the world. Hilarious and savagely sarcastic, this is a requisite addition to collections of Hispanic, Cuban, and gay literature."Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Es pleno verano y en la isla de Cuba comienza el gran carnaval que festeja los cincuenta años en el poder de Fifo, dictador ya viejo y enloquecido. Con agilidad y sarcasmo, en un relato lleno de divertidos guiños al lector, el escritor cubano Reinaldo Arenas, autor de las célebres memorias tituladas Antes que anochezca, describe los actos desaforados que se han programado en homenaje al tirano, y también 'la vida subterránea de una juventud desgarrada, erotizada', pero que se niega a aceptar la prisión en que se ha convertido la isla. Los atropellos y luchas para arrimarse al poder, las triquiñuelas que permiten sobrevivir en la miseria, la más dura represión, todo estalla durante la gran fiesta, para desencadenar los deseos más desinhibidos, los rencores, las intrigas y el miedo. Porque, entre burlas y veras, la novela testimonial El color del verano narra el horror y la imposibilidad de acceder a un futuro mejor. Op Cuba wordt een waanzinnig feest georganiseerd ter gelegenheid van het vijftigjarig ambtsjubileum van de dictator