In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd

by Ana Menéndez

Book Overview

Pushcart Prize winner Ana Menendez landed firmly in the literary landscape last year with the hardcover publication of In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. Reviewers overwhelmingly agree that she is an important new voice in American fiction: hers is a bright debut that points to even brighter accomplishments to come (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times), a tour de force that is poignant and varied, emotionally vivid and hauntingly melancholy (San Francisco...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080213887X
• ISBN13: 9780802138873
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Amazing Imagery

This book completely caught me off guard with its beautifully still scenes of intense imagery. I can't recommend this book enough to people who love authors who have almost a lyrical style. The plot is complex and many of the chapters seem to suspend time in the air. Not arrogant or showy at all, the book is intricately beautiful and a phenomenal piece of art.

A voice to a community of exiles

Ana Menendez does a fantastic job expressing life as an immigrant. Through humor and uncanny examples and spanish phrases any Cuban is all too familiar with, she brings a sense of nostalgia with her words that reach and communicate not only to the Cuban people but to any group of people anywhere in the world. Fantastic read!

Understanding Exile

The stories Ana Menendez collected in her work "In Cuba I was a German Shepherd," have no direct link to each other in the traditional sense of a unified plot working throughout the book. Rather, these stories and their sometimes-overlapping characters share an inherent links and themes that give the book a general sense of unity. One important and omnipresent unifying theme projected in the collection of stories includes romanticizing the past and its affect on the present for each of the characters. When speaking chronologically, past and present appear diametrically opposed in their position on time's arrow. However, Menendez argues that the two remain inseparable in the exilic condition, as the past maintains the place of greatest prominence for her characters amidst the background of the present, not vice versa. Without the past, the characters would lose their interpretation and understanding of the present, as well as the comfort generated by reflecting on the beauties and idiosyncrasies of their Cuban heritage. This backward view on life and its beauty serves as a unifying experience for the exile community and definitely maintains a prominent position in the bittersweet realities of the present.

Bittersweet memories of Cuban refugees in Miami

Ana Menendez has brought heartbreaking pathos to these tales of Cuban refugees living out their sad lives of exile in Miami. Alternately humorous and sad, the stories tell of the men and women whose lives stopped when they left their homeland for America. We laugh with those who can laugh at themselves, and shake our heads at those who cannot start a new life away from their beloved homeland. The title story moved me to tears, but also made me nod my head in recognition. Deserves to be widely read.