Dreaming in Cuban by Christina Garcia has been an interesting read. The book is written with a very fluid timeline, just like often occurs in dreams, which made it difficult at times to really connect with the story and understand what was going on. This has been the hardest book for me to get through and connect with so far.
One thing I really had trouble separating in this book was the mystical realism that is very present in this book and whether or not mental illness was present in some or all of the main characters of the book. There are times when other characters in the book seem to have the same difficulty in discerning this as well; Celia’s husband Jorge has her committed to a mental hospital after the birth of Lourdes. She comes home, however she has a deep tie to the sea and a passion for the revolution. Celia also shares a dream connection with Pilar, stating “She will remember everything,” making it seem as if Celia will live on through Pilar. She seems to portray mostly the mysticism Garcia uses heavily.
The other person in this book that challenged me to try to separate the mysticism from possible mental illness was Felicita. She was drawn to the local mystical religion as well as making some very odd choices in her life. She marries her three husbands quite quickly after meeting them, and it is eluded that she has either severely hurt or killed them all. She also forgets large chunks of time and tries to kill herself and her son. These instances make me think she has more of a mental illness than her actions being a product of mysticism.
Trying to separate the mystical elements from the “real” mental illness problems reminds me of when I have dreams sometimes there are more real elements in them and I often try and decipher if what I dreamt was real or not when I wake up.
Lynn, I definitely agree that this book has been a really interesting read. The magical realism (is that what you meant by mystical realism? although now as I read farther, your use of mysticism makes a lot of sense...) complicated the book a lot for me, too. I also thought that Garcia tended to include things that I didn't realize were important at all until later.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, I looked back at the quote that opens the book when we were in class today. It's from Wallace Stevens and it reads, "These casual exfoliations are / Of the tropic of resemblances." I feel that if I would have kept this quote/idea in mind while reading, I would have gotten a very different meaning/message out of the book. Reflecting on this quote now, I think that the book's message is more about how similar all the generations of women in this story are. Once we look past the "casual exfoliations," or dig past their surface identities, we see the "tropic of resemblances" or all the many things that make the women similar.
Lynn, it was definitely hard to find a way to separate magical realism and mental illness. I wrote about this in my post as well and really wished I knew what Garcia was thinking as she wrote. Maybe she wanted the line between the two to be ambiguous and uncertain. Maybe she just wants the reader to decide what is magical and what is psychologically-based. Or, perhaps she liked mixing the two in order to make the book seem even more dream-like.
ReplyDeleteYou said that this was the hardest book for you to connect with thus far. I actually really enjoyed this book and the way I had to be constantly piecing all of the elements together. I also liked Garcia's descriptive way of writing that offered vivid (and often unusual) metaphors. The piecing together of characters and plot line reminded me of A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, though there are also huge contrasts between the two writing styles.
I agree, it was hard to separate the magical realism and mental illness. I am also interested as to what Garcia was hoping to convey when it was written. I am in the beginning process of writing a story for my spanish class. Now, mine is a short story but it makes you think a lot about what you want to convey to the audience, what you want to leave open ended. But I think it is interesting to think about how possibly she did it to be more dream-like. I also like how Lavonne points out digging beyond the surface identities. It allows us to see deeper into characters.
ReplyDeleteLynn, you point out that even the characters in the book seem to have trouble distinguishing sanity from insanity, reality from distortion. I wonder how much of this reflects the political climate of Cuba under a dictator, and how much the forced loyalty to the dictator distorts one's reality. Judging by their actions, characters like Felicita would probably be considered insane in any country, but even her character has its sane moments. But many times the continuum between insane and sane seems more subjective--Jorge may have sent Celia to an insane asylum after deliberately driving her crazy by isolating her with his crazy mother and sister. So part of the question seems to be--who's in power, and who gets to define reality?
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