Usnavy hoards an unusual lamp with multicolored planes of glass, in which he
sees visions of enchanted Africa, a crystal ball where the whims of his
imagination come to life. When people try to buy it from him, he refuses them,
but when he learns that it might be a Tiffany intended for the presidential palace,
he entertains the possibility of selling it in order to buy his wife and daughter the
things they need (a stunning family secret also surfaces when he takes the lamp
to a shop). Obejas’s writing is visual, and at times even baroque, making
desperate characters and circumstances shimmer with an unusual beauty.
----------------------------------------
Charlie Vázquez is a radical Bronx-bred, Brooklyn-based
writer of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. His fiction and
essays have been published in various anthologies, such as
the iconoclastic volumes, Queer and Catholic (Taylor &
Francis, 2007) and Best Gay Love Stories: NYC (Alyson, 2006).
His stories, interviews, book reviews and essays have
appeared in print and online publications such as
Advocate.com, Chelsea Clinton News, NYpress.com,
Tanglefoot, Dreck, BigFib and Mensbook Journal. Charlie
hosts a monthly reading series called PANIC! (in the East
Village), which focuses on unusual and original writing—from
lesbian erotica to transsexual poetry to horror. He is a former contributor to the
Village Voice’s Naked City blog, a retired experimental musician and
photographer, and worked as an assistant to avant-garde diva Diamanda Galás,
one of the world’s most controversial musicians, for two-and-a-half years.
firekingpress@yahoo.com www.firekingpress.com
Copyright 2009|Ambiente. Do not reproduce without prior authorization.
sees visions of enchanted Africa, a crystal ball where the whims of his
imagination come to life. When people try to buy it from him, he refuses them,
but when he learns that it might be a Tiffany intended for the presidential palace,
he entertains the possibility of selling it in order to buy his wife and daughter the
things they need (a stunning family secret also surfaces when he takes the lamp
to a shop). Obejas’s writing is visual, and at times even baroque, making
desperate characters and circumstances shimmer with an unusual beauty.
----------------------------------------
Charlie Vázquez is a radical Bronx-bred, Brooklyn-based
writer of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. His fiction and
essays have been published in various anthologies, such as
the iconoclastic volumes, Queer and Catholic (Taylor &
Francis, 2007) and Best Gay Love Stories: NYC (Alyson, 2006).
His stories, interviews, book reviews and essays have
appeared in print and online publications such as
Advocate.com, Chelsea Clinton News, NYpress.com,
Tanglefoot, Dreck, BigFib and Mensbook Journal. Charlie
hosts a monthly reading series called PANIC! (in the East
Village), which focuses on unusual and original writing—from
lesbian erotica to transsexual poetry to horror. He is a former contributor to the
Village Voice’s Naked City blog, a retired experimental musician and
photographer, and worked as an assistant to avant-garde diva Diamanda Galás,
one of the world’s most controversial musicians, for two-and-a-half years.
firekingpress@yahoo.com www.firekingpress.com
Copyright 2009|Ambiente. Do not reproduce without prior authorization.
www.ambiente.us APRIL | ABRIL 2009
Book Review | Ruins by Achy Obejas| (Akashic 2009) |
By Charlie Vázquez
Achy Obejas’s latest novel Ruins is set in 1990s Havana and illustrates the trials
and small triumphs of Usnavy Martín Leyva, a staunch nationalist and middle-
aged bodega clerk who struggles daily amidst thinning rations and strife and
refuses to leave Cuba—even after he sees his best friend Obdulio to the beach
and watches him take to the sea on a raft, as part of the historic 1994 exodus.
Usnavy is a multifaceted allegory for allegiance, one who is bombarded with
one disappointment after the next, but whose resolve makes him adorable in a
way difficult to describe without trampling into hot-button issues, which is not
my objective. Soviet refrigerators and Michael Jackson posters capture Cuban
isolation, dire environs.
The irony on which Usnavy’s survival is built upon is an always looming specter;
despite his distrust of imperialist America, his desperation for the American
dollar is a formidable force that propels the story’s plot. Usnavy is the only man
in his decaying household and is constantly referred to as un salao, one cursed
with bad luck—but when he devises a wily scheme for finding valuables to sell
for American dollars (in the rubble of derrumbes), his fortune begins to turn, if
only slightly.
Book Review | Ruins by Achy Obejas| (Akashic 2009) |
By Charlie Vázquez
Achy Obejas’s latest novel Ruins is set in 1990s Havana and illustrates the trials
and small triumphs of Usnavy Martín Leyva, a staunch nationalist and middle-
aged bodega clerk who struggles daily amidst thinning rations and strife and
refuses to leave Cuba—even after he sees his best friend Obdulio to the beach
and watches him take to the sea on a raft, as part of the historic 1994 exodus.
Usnavy is a multifaceted allegory for allegiance, one who is bombarded with
one disappointment after the next, but whose resolve makes him adorable in a
way difficult to describe without trampling into hot-button issues, which is not
my objective. Soviet refrigerators and Michael Jackson posters capture Cuban
isolation, dire environs.
The irony on which Usnavy’s survival is built upon is an always looming specter;
despite his distrust of imperialist America, his desperation for the American
dollar is a formidable force that propels the story’s plot. Usnavy is the only man
in his decaying household and is constantly referred to as un salao, one cursed
with bad luck—but when he devises a wily scheme for finding valuables to sell
for American dollars (in the rubble of derrumbes), his fortune begins to turn, if
only slightly.
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