Elegant, arresting, unique. One marvels at Pinera's command of narrative and language. Read and see what Cubans have been raving about for decades.

"Rene's Flesh," the novel by 20th century Cuban author Virgilio Pinera, is a disturbing, yet delicious, postmodern novel. The book has been translated into a highly readable English by Mark Schafer. In "Rene's Flesh," Pinera tells the story of Rene, a beautiful youth who is heir to his family's messianic political obsessions. The story is full of homoerotic and sadomasochistic images.

A good portion of "Rene's Flesh" deals with the main character's experiences at a nightmarish boarding school. The novel includes weird parodies of both Christian iconography and political movements. Grotesque characters have such names as "Ball of Flesh" and "The Skeleton." An unsettling air of paranoia pervades the book.

Although Pinera is a truly original talent, "Rene's Flesh" is reminiscent of the work of some other significant writers. Pinera's portayal of horrific cultic rites is comparable to the work of both J.K. Huysmans and H.P. Lovecraft. His cutting satiric skill calls to mind Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man."

Those who are fascinated by Pinera's brilliant fiction should check out "Before Night Falls," the moving memoir by exiled Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. In that book, Arenas recalls his own relationship with Pinera. Together, Arenas and Pinera represent two of the giants of 20th century Cuban literature, and "Rene's Flesh" is a dark masterpiece.

Rene's Flesh attacks the mind-body issue in a solid yet surreal way. Rene tries to escape the fact that he has a corporeal side and is made of meat/flesh (the double-play of the Spanish word 'carne' is lost in the English translation). His parents, neighbors, teachers, and friends try to indoctrinate Rene into the cult of flesh in order to save him or ground him to this world. The end product is a twistedly erotic tale that shares a lot of imagery with one of Piñera's idol's works - Yukio Mishima's semi-autobiographical Confessions of a Mask. Both authors use the imagery of Saint Sebastion whose bound body is pierced by arrows (as a humorous side note, he is also considered the patron saint of archers). Both authors do a superb job of both fetishizing Sebastian and retaining the purity and his spiritual side. Definitely a book I'd recommend especially for someone in search of a more perverse and youthful essence of Hesse's Steppenwolf.

One of the 100 Best Gay & Lesbian Novels, "Rene's Flesh" is a fascinating and horrific tale of a man coming into himself and accepting his destiny. The book's dark sense of the bizarre is reflective of Clive Barker, Poppy Brite, and Stephen King. If you've ever seen the German movie "Delicatessen", you have a clue what the book is like. I highly recommend it to all fans of classic horror fiction, and to all fans of excellent literature.