Once Again, the Sea

Written mostly in stream-of-consciousness narrative while sometimes veering off into poetry. Decidedly not for the faint of heart, and even I found my mind wandering as I read it, which I guess is part of the point (note well Ulysses by James Joyce, which i still have yet to finish). However, if critics were to use "atmospheric" appropriately to describe novels, as usually they do not, this book would fit the bill. It's part of a series of novels by Arenas which he called the pent-agony, about the plight of the artist (in this case a poet) in Cuba after the Communist Revolution. Of course, I can't wait to read the other four books (Singing from the Well, The Assault, Color of Summer and The Palace of the White Skunks)!

(New York) Viking 1987 1st ed. in Eng. of author's first book [originally published in A fine copy in fine dust jacket. ARENAS, Reinaldo. SINGING FROM THE WELLS [A Novel]. Translated by Andrew Hurley. Octavo, cloth spine, paper-covered boards, pp. [xiv], 206. Reinaldo Arenas was born in Holguin, Cuba, in 1941. He was expelled from Cuba in 1980, and now lives in New York City.