BookBrowse Review

A suspenseful crime novel, a cruel family saga and an ode to literature and the ravaged island of Cuba

Leonardo Padura's latest novel, Havana Fever, is a cold-case investigation into the disappearance of a beautiful bolero singer forty-seven years prior to current events. Padura does a wonderful job of crafting the mystery. Clues are revealed gradually, building suspense and ultimately leading the reader to its dark but satisfying conclusion. Purely as a mystery novel, Havana Fever is top-notch and a terrific example of modern noir.

The real highlight of the book, though, is Padura's rich and evocative writing style. He brilliantly conjures up both the smoky nightclubs of Batista's Havana in the 1950s and the city's present poverty, comparing and contrasting the two different eras. Both are dark, gritty and rife with corruption. The modern scenes in particular are cloaked in an oppressive, unrelenting gloom that doesn't begin to lift until the book's final pages. The writing is almost poetic at times. This is one of those novels that one simply can't rush through; it must be savored.

"Not worried why he was doing so – and not really interested in finding out - perhaps driven by a mixture of alcohol and the persistent allure of certain phantoms and fascinations, Conde hailed a taxi going in the opposite direction to his house and asked the driver to take him to the corner of Twenty-Third and L, or any other street corner that might encompass the same evocative ciphers. He was pleased to see that even at that late, late, hour of the night, the fast-beating heart of the city was still packed with spaced-out youths and adults trawling for illicit offerings … Gays of every tendency and category, rockers with no stage or music, savage hunters and huntresses of foreigners and dollars, bored birds of the night with one, two and even three hidden agendas seemed anchored to that spot, not fearing the imminent dawn, as if hoping something out of the blue might drag them down the street, perhaps out to sea, or maybe up into the sky."

Havana Fever is the fifth novel to feature Mario Conde, a now-retired police inspector. Often, even sequels that stand well on their own leave the reader feeling like they've missed something, that they'd understand the novel better had they read the previous books first. This is not the case with Havana Fever, which is self-contained and relatively independent of the previous entries in the series.

Padura's only misstep is the story's pacing. The mystery and its investigation don't really get rolling until the novel's second half. While much of the narrative is necessary to really envelope the reader in the book's atmosphere, there's a lot here that feels superfluous and the exceptionally slow beginning may be enough to keep some readers from progressing beyond the first few chapters. In spite of this, I still rate Havana Fever a "5" out of 5 stars - readers who persist to the book's end will find it well worth their time. It's sure to appeal both to those who enjoy high-quality mysteries and those who are interested in reading about life in the steamy barrios of Havana past and present.

Reviewed by Kim Kovacs

This review is from the May 21, 2009 issue of BookBrowse Recommends. Click here to go to this issue.

Beyond the Book

The Cuban Bolero

The Cuban bolero is the first internationally recognized music form to originate in Cuba. Closely related to trovador songs and habaneras, boleros are songs of romance, featuring themes of love and heartbreak. The music is most often slow, sensual and deeply romantic.

The Cuban bolero is often confused with the Spanish bolero. The two forms arose independently, apparently neither influencing the other. Whereas the Spanish bolero is always in 3/4 time, the Cuban version is in 2/4 or 4/4. In addition, the Cuban version is heavily influenced by African-based rhythms. The two styles are danced differently, as well; the Spanish bolero has couples dancing apart, while the Cuban bolero is danced by couples who are touching.

It is believed that the first Cuban bolero was composed by Jose Pepe Sanchez, a natural musician with no training or ability to read music. Much of what he wrote is lost, but some of his compositions were fortunately recorded for posterity by others who recognized the songs as revolutionary. The first known bolero is Sanchez's Tristezas ("Sadness") composed in 1883.

The form evolved over time as others adopted it. Miguel Matamoros became one of the first internationally known bolero composers. He toured with his group, Trio Matamoros, throughout Latin America and Europe during the 1940s. His Lágrimas negras ("Black Tears") is still widely performed. Another important figure, lyricist Adolfo Utrera, started the trend of adapting well-known poetry for the bolero. His Aquellos Ojos Verdes ("Green Eyes") with music composed by Nilo Menéndez, was recorded by Nat King Cole, a testament to its popularity (lyrics with translation).

The bolero disappeared from Cuba after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, as the clubs where the bolero was sung were closed down. Cuban music has enjoyed a revival in recent years, however, in part due to the Academy Award-nominated documentary Buena Vista Social Club (1999) which featured music and interviews with once-famous musicians, some of whom were in their 90s at the time of the taping. The Grammy-winning soundtrack includes music from Ibrahim Ferrer, considered the last of the great bolero singers from pre-Castro Cuba. Ferrer continued to tour until his death in 2005 at the age of 78. His posthumously-released album, Mi Sueño, was devoted entirely to the Cuban bolero.