Days of Awe

If the main character hadn't been so self-absorbed and whiny, I think I would have enjoyed the story more. The conflict between being Cuban and Jewish would have been made so much stronger without the shallow characters and random, almost forced, sex scenes. There are so many better writings exploring the competing forces of cultural identity.

I thought the subject matter of this book would grab me - I have been on a Spanish Inquisition kick lately. As I was reading I was convinced it was a memoir and kept forgiving the author her tangents, off topic threads, unbelievable coincidences, and highly unlikely episodes- after all it was a memoir right? Except that it isn't a memoir, and so the inconsistencies and other odd occurrences, random historical mentions, just annoyed me! I also was put off by the brief, tossed off mentions of important and/or interesting details - especially those relating to santeria, palo monte, the prenda judia. There is a glossary at the back, but there were mentions of these practices that were jarring and no explanation was offered.

Most of the show more characters were not well developed and their actions were often reprehensible without rational. The main character was someone I found unpleasant, selfish and annoying. Such a shame - this should have been an interesting book about a small group about which little is known. show less

Story of San Jose's conversos in Cuba