Havana

In 1953 Havana, Cuba is rife with intrigue. The Russians have found a perfect figurehead in a young man named Castro, while others connected to the American government seek to kill him. Players are put into motion...one to protect Castro, one to kill him...Earl Swagger is the latter, he just doesn't know it yet. All he knows is he's stuck in Havana as a body guard to Arkansas Congressman Harry Etheredge. Havana is being pulled in three directions...the Russians, who want to turn it into a communist country and claim its riches for their own, the Americans who want to keep their alliance with the Cuban government and continue the rich trade in sugars, fruits and rum that make companies such as Domino happily affluent, and the non-Chicago branches of the mafia, who think of this as their Las Vegas, their surety that the Chicago boys will never be as important as the people who hold Cuba.

Hunter's fans will know Earl Swagger from at least two other books, Hot Springs, which is referred to, and Pale Horse Coming, which was reviewed for this site. He's as tough as they come, sensible, battle hard, with a preternatural sense of when someone is looking at him. He's one of those solid people...a solider who fought bravely in WWII, a beloved husband and father...the ultimate hero. Through the book we contrast this man of iron with the soft, rotten people around him, and I wonder, is the point of Earl in this book one of contrast, to make the political satire more pointed, or is it a question to the readers, forcing us to examine the allure of this near-stereotypical type of two-fisted hero? This is also, perhaps, unfair...Earl is not all brawn and no brains, all wind-up solider with no emotions, no conscious. If you put me in a room with a bunch of characters, and informed me that I was going to go into the jungle and I had to pick one man to have my back, I'd probably pick Earl. I've used the word solid before, and I use it again...it's exactly right.

This is the world that Earl soon finds himself in: a place that is incredibly sultry, filled with politicos hawking their wares, with people rich and happy and wanting to keep the status quo, with people poor and miserable and wanting revolution. Sugar is made into rum, impoverished women are made into prostitutes. Earl, who himself isn't a prude, is forced to accompany Boss Harry, who seems more determined to get drunk and bedded than to conduct the "fact finding mission" he's supposedly on. It's really a heck of a job to put a man like Earl on...but then, we know that's not the real reason why he's here.

The idea of Havana in this time period is an exciting one, and makes for a really fabulous setting...if you know a little history, you know that it's a time that seems to almost be holding its breath, because something is building, something will eventually explode. You can liken her to a very beautiful woman, over lush in her exoticness. Casinos and gambling joints glisten on her body like jewels, and her suitors, people like United Fruit, Domino Sugar, and Bicardi use her most cruelly, rubbing elbows with porn makers and mobsters taking advantage of a society made permissive by desperation. It is a time of great turmoil under the surface, for her people are willing to listen to young men like Castro, who are fervent in their speeches, charismatic with the vision of what can be. Secret police give shadows to her personality, introducing us to people such as the cruel Ojos Bellos, who gained his name, not from the fact that he had beautiful eyes, but from the fact that he was fond of creating the most exquisite pain by torturing his prisoners by applying a scalpel to this most sensitive spot. Everyone is frightened, everyone is jockeying for some position of power.

Havana, in 1953, draws corruption like flies.

Hunter enjoys bringing a bit of political satire to the mix. The way the politicians plot, the way they act, borders on the hilarious. I especially loved one scene where Boss Harry and his assistant are pinned down by gunfire, and how they turn so easily against each other. We often see scenes where the vapid good will of the politician in Earl's care often dissolves into something spoiled and stupid, his preoccupation with getting certain sexual favors and his assurance that no one thinks any the less of him for his manly foibles is as disgusting as it is frighteningly realistic.

One of the interesting things in this is that you're set up by the jacket copy, even by my descriptions of this book, to dislike the Russian sent to protect Castro. His name is Speshnev, and he's meant to groom and bring along Castro, whose nickname is Greaseball because of his lack of washing. But, you never get a chance to dislike Speshnev...it's hard to feel anything but bad for a man who starts out the book at a Gulag, grateful to have won a cockroach at a card game...one that he happily eats. His gratitude for the smallest things and his odd sense of humor make him impossible not to like.

In fact, there are many characters, both real and imagined, that are rather interesting. They blend well together, so that you can hardly notice the difference between what is real and what is not, even a quick bar fight with none other than Ernest Hemingway feels like it belongs.

It's a fairly strong book, solid in its adventure and political satire, it is a perfect visit to Havana before Castro's regime took over.