Deb­bie Ja­cob

Jay Z and Be­y­once's re­cent trip to Cu­ba cer­tain­ly stirred up a po­lit­i­cal hor­net's nest in the US. While the singing bil­lion­aire cou­ple flashed smiles and posed for pic­tures on Cuban beach­es, Cuban-Amer­i­can politi­cians crit­i­cised their trip, point­ing out that with a few ex­cep­tions, trips to Cu­ba are il­le­gal.

Flori­da sen­a­tor Mar­co Ru­bio said the singers need­ed to get more in­formed about the Cuban regime. This week, the Sun­day Arts Sec­tion (SAS) Book Club high­lights books that cap­ture Cu­ba: the good, the bad and the ug­ly. If you want to know more about Cu­ba, check out these books, which are per­fect for a book club read.

1. Be­fore Night Falls, by Reinal­do Are­nas. This au­to­bi­og­ra­phy by the late, great sur­re­al­ist is a com­pelling chron­i­cle of his life as a writer in Com­mu­nist Cu­ba. Are­nas charts his strug­gle to write un­der the op­pres­sive Cuban regime. French tourists smug­gled Are­na's nov­els out of the coun­try. Jailed for be­ing ho­mo­sex­u­al, Are­nas even­tu­al­ly es­caped to Amer­i­ca on the Mariel Boat Lift in 1981.

In New York, he con­tract­ed Aids, but willed him­self to com­plete his Pen­tag­o­nia, a col­lec­tion of se­mi-au­to­bi­o­graph­i­cal fic­tion. The Pen­tag­o­nia in­clud­ed Singing from the Well, Farewell to the Sea, The Place of the White Skunks, The As­sault and The Colour of Sum­mer. My favourite Are­nas book is The Door­man, the sto­ry of a Cuban refugee who fails at every­thing un­til he be­comes a concierge in an up­scale apart­ment build­ing. Soon, the apart­ment own­ers' an­i­mals be­gin to com­mu­ni­cate with the concierge. Are­nas wrote a scathing let­ter against Cas­tro which he in­cludes at the end of his mem­oirs. He com­mit­ted sui­cide in 1990.

2. Dream­ing in Cuban, by Cristi­na Gar­cia. The sto­ry of a Cuban fam­i­ly di­vid­ed in their loy­al­ties to Cu­ba, Dream­ing in Cuban dips in­to mag­i­cal re­al­ism to show how the Cuban Rev­o­lu­tion in­spired and lat­er di­vid­ed three gen­er­a­tions of one fam­i­ly. A va­ri­ety of nar­ra­tive forms from let­ters to dreams and mem­o­ries cre­ate a nov­el as soft and beau­ti­ful as a land­scape paint­ing. Here, Celia, who lost the love of her life and lat­er her san­i­ty, de­votes her life to the Cas­tro regime by watch­ing the ocean every night for en­e­mies in­vad­ing the is­land. Fe­li­cia re­mains in Cu­ba and grav­i­tates to­wards the na­tive re­li­gion San­ter�a while Lour­des flees Cu­ba and opens a bak­ery in Brook­lyn. This is the de­fin­i­tive nov­el for show­ing how Cuban fam­i­lies have be­come di­vid­ed over pol­i­tics.

3. The Mam­bo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Os­car Hi­jue­los. This nov­el by a Cuban-Amer­i­can cap­tures that nos­tal­gia so of­ten as­so­ci­at­ed with Cuban refugees, who long for the day they can re­turn to Cu­ba. Two broth­ers, the very bois­ter­ous Ce­sar, and his qui­et, melan­cholic younger broth­er Nestor ar­rive in Cu­ba in 1949 with the dream of be­com­ing mam­bo stars. The high­light of their lives be­comes a guest ap­pear­ance on the I Love Lucy show in 1955. Like Cu­ba, the broth­ers be­come frozen in time, car­i­ca­tures of a by­gone era that they can nev­er live up to ex­pec­ta­tions in the present.

Join us in the SAS Book Club Face­book group and tell us what Cuban lit­er­a­ture you have read.