Pablo Medina sets up a hypothetical and visionary scenario. What if Fidel Castro died (El Campion) and one could travel to Cuba (Barata) freely? Intelligently and creatively written, the main character, a Baratan exile, (Felix Nogara) draws you in to his plight. I couldn't put this book down. While reading this book I kept making analogies between the ficititious island of Barata and Cuba. Mr. Medina obviously has a solid grasp of Cuban history and uses it as the foundation for this compelling story. The chapter that tells the story of El Campion's death is well worth the price of the book! A must read for anyone who has ever wondered, "what if?"......

Pablo Medina, an exile from Cuba, brings a solid knowledge of history and politics, a wide-ranging imagination and a deep understanding of the human heart to his second novel, "The Return of Felix Nogara." The title character is a rootless fifty-year-old man returning to his island homeland of Barata (a thinly disguised Cuba) after 38 years in exile. Nicolas Campion, the feared dictator of Barata, has recently died, and exiles are flocking back to the island, hoping to regain what they lost when they fled. The only things Felix Nogara hopes for are a reunion with his long-lost mother and a sense of closure with his past. Unfortunately, he discovers there can never be any closure with a country in which there is no difference between past and present--only a change in the names of dictators and revolutionaries. Pablo Medina knows well what exile does to the human spirit--both good and bad--and the history he has invented for Barata, while fantastic and outrageous, is grounded in a thorough understanding of both Cuban history and basic human nature. His writing is lean and elegant, his storytelling full of astute and satisfying surprises. Most of all, he makes you care very much about Felix Nogara and the people of Barata--a people who, though they prefer romantic illusions to truth, nevertheless have learned to endure whatever Fate throws at them, and thrive in spite of it. In its combination of magic realism, bawdy black humor and high moral seriousness, "The Return of Felix Nogara" combines the best of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with the best of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.

This anthology began the groundwork for uniting Cuban American writers in the US. Carolina Hospital, now one of the co-writers of A Little Love (by CC Medina), was the first to bring together these writers under one publication. Included are such prolific writers as Gustavo Perez-Firmat, Pablo Medina, Roberto Fernandez, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, and Elias Miguel Munoz to name a few as well as other less known writers who are nevertheless as intuitive and accessable by many audiences. Cuban American Writers: Los atrevidos contains short stories, novel excerpts and poetry by these writers. The theme varies from a longing for Cuba or loosing the culture of the past to the difficulties experienced by exiled writers dealing with a foreign "sometimes distant" culture. It is still my favorite book of the probably thousand or so I have read. If you can find a copy, let me know, mine is getting rather used to say the least.

Pablo Medina's memoirs of growing up in Cuba are so engaging that the reader imagines he, too, has grown up on that tropical island in the 1950's.

Mr. Medina's poetry is a cultural tour. It tastes of hot dogs and cafe con leche. It smells of El Malecon and New York's South Street Seaport. It transports you to Giotto's world, Philadelphia, Miami and Asbury Park. Highly recommended.