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Trying
to escape the trap of one's soul
A legendary seducer goes to Sweden in search
of money and sex in this exploration of human animalism.
MARIO TARRADELL
The
Miami Herald. Miami, Florida, United States.
Saturday, March 20, 2005 |
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THE SEEDY, dingy streets of Havana, far from the pristine
tourist trap areas of Cuba, provide the pivotal backdrop
for Pedro Juan Gutiérrez's
Tropical
Animal, the loose sequel to his acclaimed Dirty
Havana Trilogy .
Tropical
Animal reintroduces us to Pedro Juan, a painter
and writer with an unquenchable sexual appetite, who
lives on the top floor of a dilapidated apartment building.
There he can take in the desperation of fellow Cubans,
watch the whores, the hustlers and the hipsters like
a lax big brother.
In
the same building lives Gloria, a prostitute with a
kind heart who's madly in love with Pedro Juan. Her
lifelong goal is to tame his ways, make him her husband
and have a house full of children with him. Pedro Juan
isn't so easily domesticated. His restless personality,
not to mention that overactive libido, keeps him searching
for a better life. Or at the least a change of scenery.
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Enter Agneta, a lonely Swede who befriends
Pedro Juan by phone and lures him to Sweden under the pretense
of speaking engagements to showcase his work. Of course, the
moment Pedro Juan steps off the plane, an affair with Agneta
begins. He spends months in Sweden, and slowly watches the country's
cold climate and Agneta's cramped, sterile apartment close in
on him. He
feels more trapped in Sweden than he did in Cuba. And he starts
to miss Gloria.
Tropical
Animal, translated from Spanish to English by Peter Lownds,
gradually creeps under the reader's skin. Mr. Gutiérrez's
blunt prose and his explicit, often violent descriptions of
sex have a double-edged sword effect. On the one hand, there's
a despicable quality to Pedro Juan. He's the quintessential
user, a man so selfish and self-absorbed that he can't stand
himself at times.
But
there's a primal fascination at work, too. Like a bloody car
wreck, you find yourself staring at the tragedy. And if you
read between the lines, you might even feel pity for such
a lost soul. In the far reaches of his psyche, Pedro Juan
yearns for stability in a country screaming insecurity.
Another
twist to the tale comes imagined, not detailed. Mr. Gutiérrez,
who lives in Havana, named his central character Pedro Juan,
his same first and middle names. Tropical Animal
is clearly a novel, so says the book's cover. But is it really
a work of fiction? How much is the author writing as pure
fiction, and how much of it is autobiographical therapy for
his own existence?
No
easy answers here, but enough insight into the barbaric and
gentle dichotomies of humanity to keep the intrigue fresh,
real. Tropical Animal becomes a book that's hard
to toss aside even when it seems all of the protagonist's
redeeming qualities have vanished.
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