Telex from Cuba

A Novel

By: Rachel Kushner

Narrated by: Lloyd James

A National Book Award Finalist for Fiction

The debut novel by New York Times bestselling author Rachel Kushner, called “shimmering” (The New Yorker), “multilayered and absorbing” (The New York Times Book Review), and “gorgeously written” (Kirkus Reviews).

Young Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites come of age in pre-revolutionary Cuba, where the American expatriates tend their own fiefdom—three hundred thousand acres of United Fruit Company sugarcane that surround their gated enclave under the shadow of the Batista dictatorship. If the rural tropics are a child's dreamworld, Everly and K.C. nevertheless have keen eyes for the indulgences and betrayals of the grown-ups around them—the mordant drinking and illicit loves, the race hierarchies and violence.

In Havana, a thousand kilometers and a world away from the American colony, a cabaret dancer meets a French agitator named Christian de La Mazière, whose seductive demeanor can’t mask his shameful past. Together they become enmeshed in the brewing revolutionary underground and the political upheaval that will soon transform the island. When Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains above the cane plantation, torching the sugar and kidnapping a boat full of "yanqui" revelers, K.C. and Everly begin to discover the brutality that keeps the colony and its corporate imperialism humming. Though their parents remain blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what is to come.

Kushner’s first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.

Amazing character development

Rachel Kushner is rightly celebrated. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read hundreds. If you want a sense of Cuba before Castro’s revolution and the tensions involved, the book is also great for that historical perspective.

Great story, concept, characters

I was sucked in from the first pages. Loved the technique of telling the story from different characters’ perspectives. A lovely sense of place and time. Found the characters’ ruminations in the last third of the book to be repetitive and less well honed writing than the writing in the rest of the book. Overall, highly recommend this book for a great read.

A captivating story about the Cuban Revolution from a different perspective

Like most of Kushner’s novels, this explores the interior lives of people set against revolutionary or political upheaval - yet somehow it’s never quite about the politics. I enjoyed Creation Lake and the Flamethrowers more, perhaps because her female protagonists were more complex and better defined. But this has a more tender approach that left me thinking about the story long after I finished. First rate.

So-so

I began this novel with high expectations as I am visiting Cuba for the first time next week . I found the story wanders all over the place, not really developing any character fully. This left me feeling unconnected to the characters and the story. It’s too bad because the story had a lot of potential. I recommend reading a non-fiction history of Cuba .

Not Rachel Kushner's finest

If you like Rachel Kushner's other novels which have a strong singular voice, don't expect more of the same here. The story meanders all over the place and there is no discernible voice. Instead you are left wondering at times who the narrator is. As for character development, there is none.