Book Review: The Island of Eternal Love

The Island of Eternal Love

Daina Chaviano

Hardcover, published by Riverhead, June 12, 2008

336 pages

first English edition, translated from the Spanish

La Isla de los Amores Infinitos

Daina Chaviano

first edition, published by Grijalbo, Sept. 5, 2006

384 pages

Reviewer's Notes

I first read this book in Spanish, and then bought the English version, which I do intend to read soon.  I have so many books to get to...sigh.... 

I first posted this review on Amazon, on April 18, 2010.  I really should have posted it here much, much sooner!  

Chaviano is an enormously talented author, specializing in fantasy and science fiction.   Definitely my cup of tea!!  Although this is the only one of her books I've read thus far, I am familiar with the plots of her other novels, so I can confidently make such a statement. Hopefully, more of her books will be translated into English in the near future. 

By the way, I think the cover with the gently-curving staircase is absolutely beautiful!

I have just finished a journey through the ethnic history of a people - my people - in a land of love and blood, as well as magically captivating landscapes in which sun and moon dance to the intoxicating rhythms of a gently rolling sea.

I have found myself in these pages. Chaviano's enthralling story has wrapped me in a nostalgic dream, one that had, inexplicably enough, dwelt in my subconscious mind for years. It was the dream of a beautiful island paradise, one where love is indeed eternal, where the warm breezes of the Malecon enticed one with their romantic whisperings, where the night pulsed with vibrant music, the music of the masters--Ernesto Lecuona, Benny More...

This dream awakened once more in me as I read this enchanting story, which weaves the tales of three different families, three different ethnic groups, into one single thread. The experiences of each family also serve to highlight key periods of Cuban history.

There is the Chinese family, who seeks refuge from war in a land already sheltering their fellow countrymen. There is the African family, in the person of a young girl cruelly snatched from the bosom of her tribe, to be sold into slavery. Then there is the family from Spain, whose female members inherit a strangely humorous curse.

Cecilia, the protagonist, ties everything together through her unusual conversations with Amalia, a mysterious old woman whom she meets in a Little Havana bar, a Miami neighborhood thus nicknamed for its heavy concentration of Cuban immigrants in the '60s and '70s. Cuban boleros play in the background, while vistas of a Havana from a bygone era roll on a screen set up next to the dance floor.

The whole tale unfolds as Cecilia, feeling existentially lost in Miami, sits by Amalia's side, raptly listening to the woman's tale of the three families, of growing up listening to the giants of Cuban music, of her loving relationship with Rita Montaner, the great Cuban actress.

Cecilia listens, and her nostalgia and sense of loss grow, even as, in her life away from the bar and these enthralling tales, she starts to investigate a very strange phenomenon - a haunted house that appears in different locations all over Miami, as it once also appeared in Havana.

There are humorous touches in this magical book, as well, such as the already mentioned curse, and one of Cecilia's friends, who calls himself "La Lupe", after a Cuban singer of recent years. One cannot possibly forget "Fidelina", the parrot who screams out popular Communist slogans, to the constant dismay of her owner. The comical parrot satirizes the Cuban dictator she is obviously named for.

The plot weaves its serendipitous way from Amalia's tale to Cecilia's present-day life, from Havana to Miami. Through this technique, Chaviano metaphorically expresses the unceasing dance of longing felt by all Cubans who have had to uproot themselves in order to find a freedom denied to them by an oppressive regime.

Magical, enthralling, enchanting...this novel is a mesmerizing tapestry of the Cuban experience, told by a literary master. It is the quintessential Cuban novel. It is the story of my heart and soul, as it is that of all of us born in that magical, eternal land of eternal love...

Daina Chaviano