In the Cold of the Malecón

Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Translated by Cola Franzen and Dick Cluster, these renegade stories by Cuban writer Antonio Jose Ponte are set in Cuba during the hard times following the collapse of the Soviet Union. People go to work only to find that their jobs no longer exist. They joke and tell stories from the past, live aimlessly, uncertain about what the future holds. While living in this state of suspension, Ponte's dynamic characters create their own startling worlds. Ponte raises unease to an art, stripping Cuban spirituality to the bone. His work is so quiet that one can begin to hear the real dynamics, usually just of of reach -- Elizabeth Hanly, Partisan Review.