The Return of Felix Nogara

by Pablo Medina

Book Overview

The dictator is dead and suddenly the exiles can return. So begins Pablo Medina's most compelling work to date, a novel set on Barata, the imaginary Caribbean island (not unlike Cuba). Sent to the United States at the age of twelve, Felix Nogara has remained attached to his native land through dissident fellow exiles and through his family legacy. Thirty-eight years later, he returns, and with a wise and sardonic cab driver as his guide, he travels...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892552794
• ISBN13: 9780892552795
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Persea Books
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Difficult to resist

This is one of the best novels on Cuba I've ever read. That's a huge compliment, I know, and I will elaborate. The first thing you fall in love with is Medina's writing. His narrative is so entrancing with its descriptive poetic prose, its gripping longing, and its irresistible humor (to the point that I had to stop reading to laugh) that you cannot put the book down. Even if you find history boring, you continue reading through the first chapter (where he narrates the history of this "fictional" island) because you trust this intelligent guide. In this chapter Medina addresses the island's ever-lasting political conflicts, its dictators, its struggle since the Spaniards came. I applaud Medina on this, because if you want to understand Cuba you must know its history. The second thing you fall in love with is Medina's grasp of the human soul, the Cuban idiosyncrasy, and how effectively he describes the experiences of exile, loss, nostalgia, quest for roots, first love, patriotism, etc. When I closed the book I was left with the following quote: "And who ever cared about ideology anyway? The Baratans had never been people of ideas; they were people of passion and allegiance." Although the novel explores numerous themes, it was this last statement that left me sorrowful, staring blankly at the wall for hours. I was struck by the irony of history, how these people "of passion and allegiance"-who are gregarious and love to dance and share, and live with an open-house policy-have been caught up in this dividing web of politics they can hardly understand. That's what broke my heart. Thankfully, Medina's picturesque and poetic prose was there to bring life back to it.

A creative, visionary and eclectic approach to "what if?....

Pablo Medina sets up a hypothetical and visionary scenario. What if Fidel Castro died (El Campion) and one could travel to Cuba (Barata) freely? Intelligently and creatively written, the main character, a Baratan exile, (Felix Nogara) draws you in to his plight. I couldn't put this book down. While reading this book I kept making analogies between the ficititious island of Barata and Cuba. Mr. Medina obviously has a solid grasp of Cuban history and uses it as the foundation for this compelling story. The chapter that tells the story of El Campion's death is well worth the price of the book! A must read for anyone who has ever wondered, "what if?"......

A brilliant, audacious novel of exile, history and politics.

Pablo Medina, an exile from Cuba, brings a solid knowledge of history and politics, a wide-ranging imagination and a deep understanding of the human heart to his second novel, "The Return of Felix Nogara." The title character is a rootless fifty-year-old man returning to his island homeland of Barata (a thinly disguised Cuba) after 38 years in exile. Nicolas Campion, the feared dictator of Barata, has recently died, and exiles are flocking back to the island, hoping to regain what they lost when they fled. The only things Felix Nogara hopes for are a reunion with his long-lost mother and a sense of closure with his past. Unfortunately, he discovers there can never be any closure with a country in which there is no difference between past and present--only a change in the names of dictators and revolutionaries. Pablo Medina knows well what exile does to the human spirit--both good and bad--and the history he has invented for Barata, while fantastic and outrageous, is grounded in a thorough understanding of both Cuban history and basic human nature. His writing is lean and elegant, his storytelling full of astute and satisfying surprises. Most of all, he makes you care very much about Felix Nogara and the people of Barata--a people who, though they prefer romantic illusions to truth, nevertheless have learned to endure whatever Fate throws at them, and thrive in spite of it. In its combination of magic realism, bawdy black humor and high moral seriousness, "The Return of Felix Nogara" combines the best of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with the best of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.