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Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
The Short Take:
Another excellent novel from Wolfe in the manner of A Man in Full. This one is set in Miami and highlights that city’s racial divides. As you expect with Wolfe, you get a real feel for time and place as well as a page-turning novel.
Why?
Wolfe is primarily a journalist and it shows in his novels.  His attention to the environment his characters inhabit adds so much to his books. This one is no exception. You can almost feel that searing Miami sun beating down on you as you read.
Not that there isn’t plenty of plot to keep you turning the pages. Wolfe introduces multiple characters whose story lines overlap in various ways. He weaves a fascinating tapestry of life in a city where skin color and country of origin define modern tribes who resent each other for myriad reasons.
I’m aware that various literary giants like to dump on Wolfe. I don’t get it. His novels are so vibrant and in the “now,” taking the pulse of of today’s society by showing how different segments of it interact — or don’t. They could be of genuine value to historians well in the future as well as entertaining and informing readers now.
I particularly liked the way Wolfe expressed the flash thoughts or insights that  often interrupted a character’s on-going chain of inner musings (framed by a series of colons on either side; you’ll have to read the book to really understand). It’s how we think, but you don’t see it reflected much in novels.
Wolfe is a constant favorite of mine and this book did not disappoint.
A Little Plot:
Cuban policeman Nestor Camacho performs a daring and spectacular physical feat that saves a Cuban would-be-refugee’s life but results in that person being deported. This turns him into a pariah in the tight-knit Cuban community.
His isolation drives him into new relationships — including one with a young and ambitious Miami reporter — which create even more complications in his life. Meanwhile, his beloved girlfriend is bent on escaping the restrictions of the Cuban community, but not with Nestor.
Investigations, possible art forgeries, the Russian Mafia, drug busts, politics, an orgiastic bacchanal, and Haitians of various hues all add to the mix. It’s all good.