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The Second Death of Unica Aveyano
From the author of The Lazarus Rumba (“His symphonic imagination proves mesmerizing.” — New York Times Book Review; “Wonderful.” — Los Angeles Times ), an inventive, poignant new novel.
One night in April, Única Aveyano sneaks out of her Miami nursing home and wanders toward the sea. Whether she intends to end her life or simply look at the ocean depends on whom you believe. She leaves behind her husband, a devoted nurse, the solicitude of her family—and the images of a little boy named Elián Gonzalez that are all over the news.
Her rash decision sets in motion a gorgeously told tale that is at once comedy and elegy. Every lived moment evokes for Única a story from her past, and we live that past with from the ghosts of her mother and stepfather in 1930s Guantánamo, and her beloved but wayward son, who refused to leave Cuba with the rest of the family, to her exile in Miami and New York City.
A chronicle of the familiar and the strange, of madness and clarity, of the ambivalence of home and family, The Second Death of Única Aveyano reveals unforgettably an indomitable woman whose entire life now seems a dress rehearsal for the heady days before her death.
One night in April, Única Aveyano sneaks out of her Miami nursing home and wanders toward the sea. Whether she intends to end her life or simply look at the ocean depends on whom you believe. She leaves behind her husband, a devoted nurse, the solicitude of her family—and the images of a little boy named Elián Gonzalez that are all over the news.
Her rash decision sets in motion a gorgeously told tale that is at once comedy and elegy. Every lived moment evokes for Única a story from her past, and we live that past with from the ghosts of her mother and stepfather in 1930s Guantánamo, and her beloved but wayward son, who refused to leave Cuba with the rest of the family, to her exile in Miami and New York City.
A chronicle of the familiar and the strange, of madness and clarity, of the ambivalence of home and family, The Second Death of Única Aveyano reveals unforgettably an indomitable woman whose entire life now seems a dress rehearsal for the heady days before her death.
- GenresFiction
273 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 2, 2009
This initially felt like a hard book to get a handle on. As a 'cuban refugee story' it is interesting and worth a read. Mostly, however, it is a story about getting old, about slipping in and out of dementia, about facing the end of life with all the uncertainty there might be at such a time. It is a poginant, often quirky story of an old Cuban woman's memories and current life as her being drifts in and out of the many pains & heartaches of her bumpy life and sad losses.
On the edge of dementia, she sees in Elian Gonzales the son she lost and in her grandson, Patricio, a chance for redemption of some kind, though she recognizes, sometimes vaguely, sometimes clearly, his failings. Meanwhile she tries repeatedly to leave. To leave life. Leave Miami for Cuba. Leave to find Elian. Leave her controlling daughter in law. But she is always pulled back somehow, by her faithful nurse or much less faithful but dutiful daughter-in-law, and somehow, almost painfully incidentally, by her desperate and sadly forsaken husband who cannot bear that she would leave without him, would leave him behind.....
Ultimately, it is Mestre-Reed's story about the unraveling and traveling of the mind as it disappears into dementia. But who, after all, can really say what that is like? Have any returned from dementia and recorded it for us, the yet uninitiated? I don't think so, but Mestre-Reed has done a pretty job of it.
It is a well-written, almost delicately conceived book by a gifted writer. Worth a read.
On the edge of dementia, she sees in Elian Gonzales the son she lost and in her grandson, Patricio, a chance for redemption of some kind, though she recognizes, sometimes vaguely, sometimes clearly, his failings. Meanwhile she tries repeatedly to leave. To leave life. Leave Miami for Cuba. Leave to find Elian. Leave her controlling daughter in law. But she is always pulled back somehow, by her faithful nurse or much less faithful but dutiful daughter-in-law, and somehow, almost painfully incidentally, by her desperate and sadly forsaken husband who cannot bear that she would leave without him, would leave him behind.....
Ultimately, it is Mestre-Reed's story about the unraveling and traveling of the mind as it disappears into dementia. But who, after all, can really say what that is like? Have any returned from dementia and recorded it for us, the yet uninitiated? I don't think so, but Mestre-Reed has done a pretty job of it.
It is a well-written, almost delicately conceived book by a gifted writer. Worth a read.
March 2, 2010
This novel could easily be read in a day. Mestre-Reed's prose is so gorgeous I literally stopped multiple times to record lines of descriptive proof that blew me away. Statements of such elegant simplicity.
And Unica Aveyano should join the pantheon of fictive grandmothers we all rage at and would be blessed to call our own. Her story - ranging from Cuba to Miami to New York - and that of the family that revolves around and reflects her, is fleshy and dirty, ugly and honest, and shot through with almost magical beauty.
I feel as if I'm *only* giving it 4 stars due to the circumstances of my days right now - distraction, exhaustion. And that read on a beach in the southern hemisphere, this novel could vaunt to the short list of favorites at all time.
And my original note:
....No review yet. Just a happy discovery. I hit the final days of Lambda Rising a few weeks back, partly for the sake of nostalgia, partly to hunt 70%-off books. I found 3, but this one "The Second Death of Unica Aveyano," a book I'd never heard of, struck me instantly. An old Cuban woman in Miami. Her husband. Her gay grandson in Key West. Elian Gonsalez and the pain of being old and far from home. I'm only ten pages in, but transported, and happy to know Ernesto Mestre-Reed.
And Unica Aveyano should join the pantheon of fictive grandmothers we all rage at and would be blessed to call our own. Her story - ranging from Cuba to Miami to New York - and that of the family that revolves around and reflects her, is fleshy and dirty, ugly and honest, and shot through with almost magical beauty.
I feel as if I'm *only* giving it 4 stars due to the circumstances of my days right now - distraction, exhaustion. And that read on a beach in the southern hemisphere, this novel could vaunt to the short list of favorites at all time.
And my original note:
....No review yet. Just a happy discovery. I hit the final days of Lambda Rising a few weeks back, partly for the sake of nostalgia, partly to hunt 70%-off books. I found 3, but this one "The Second Death of Unica Aveyano," a book I'd never heard of, struck me instantly. An old Cuban woman in Miami. Her husband. Her gay grandson in Key West. Elian Gonsalez and the pain of being old and far from home. I'm only ten pages in, but transported, and happy to know Ernesto Mestre-Reed.
November 25, 2023
Oh, this is a difficult one to rate. Mestre-Reed's writing is musical in this insightful story about a Cuban refugee's life and her later struggles with cancer and dementia. We're taken through chapters to different periods in the life of Única Aveyano and her extended family. We're also taken to Única's later struggles, trapped by a country and body that no longer feel like hers, and seeking her way to freedom - to her second death.
It's a solemn story grounded in both Cuban and American history. At times, its timeline becomes tangled, and it takes effort to figure out where we've jumped back to in the story and why.
Without spoiling anything, I'm also left wondering what was gained from Única's journey, beyond the character study of a woman accepting that she is ready to enter the final stage of her life. I don't mean to minimize that story, but it's a place that Única was already in at the start of the book, at least to me. Beautiful as the writing is, and interesting as all the characters, there isn't much of a journey. We start where we end, with another death in a way. I don't know, I'll need to meditate on this one a bit more.
Recommended if you enjoy lyrical prose or have an interest in Cuban historical fiction.
It's a solemn story grounded in both Cuban and American history. At times, its timeline becomes tangled, and it takes effort to figure out where we've jumped back to in the story and why.
Without spoiling anything, I'm also left wondering what was gained from Única's journey, beyond the character study of a woman accepting that she is ready to enter the final stage of her life. I don't mean to minimize that story, but it's a place that Única was already in at the start of the book, at least to me. Beautiful as the writing is, and interesting as all the characters, there isn't much of a journey. We start where we end, with another death in a way. I don't know, I'll need to meditate on this one a bit more.
Recommended if you enjoy lyrical prose or have an interest in Cuban historical fiction.
August 11, 2018
Poetic, captivating, and beautiful. Sometimes hard to keep up with the timeline, as it jumps around a bit, but don't let that deter you. Most definitely worth reading. A book I can, and will, read many times.
December 28, 2013
An old Cubana grandmother with cancer,exiled in America,remembers her life while seeking her death.Unfortunately her life seems pretty depressing as was this book.Overly descriptive magical realism.Bogged down with metaphor and in the end pointless.
March 5, 2007
Cubano! Old people!
February 13, 2008
About life in and after Cuba, about growing old and losing your children. Beautifully written.
April 14, 2010
This had some really great parts, I love the spanglish and how they tied it in with Elian Gonzalez, but it was scattered and hard to follow.
June 3, 2010
Not my favority, but I did like the writing. I got lost in the story from time to time.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews