I think the title is very fitting - I really felt like I was dreaming in Cuban. I was reading the book on Kindle and I tend to read my Kindle books late with lights often already off (I love the screen light and night mode!). It took me very long to get into the book and I was often rereading whole passages either because I didn't remember what happened or I was not sure whether it was in the book or already in my dream. Even after finishing the book, it feels a bit like a dream with big parts I remember only vaguely. It feels like it's made up of glimpses and a lot is left out for us to guess or ponder about. It also leaves a lot of loose threads and doesn't provide any satisfying reconciliations and closures.
The portrayal of santería in the novel was one of the most novel aspects for me. It was interesting to learn about the Yoruba deities and religious rituals and how they spread to Cuba together with slaves and mingled with the Catholic religious traditions and beliefs of Christianity. ( )

I enjoyed the deep richness of the narrative in this book. A side effect of the Cuban setting was the little reminders of the two or three years I lived in Key West as a child: images of poincianas and conches brought back memories long submerged. ( )

Soñar en cubano es una de las novedades literarias más sorprendentes de los últimos años. A través de cartas , diarios y recuerdos, Cristina García cuenta la historia de cuatro mujeres pertenecientes a una familia dividida política y geográficamente por la revolución Cubana. La narración nos lleva con fluidez del presente al pasado y de Nueva York a La Habana, revelándonos un mundo fascinante, atravesado por la pasión amorosa y las diferencias generacionales, el compromiso político y la fuerza de voluntad, la inestabilidad y la determinación. Mientras Celia, ferviente defensora de Fidel Castro, permanece en Cuba junto a una hija que se une a los cultos afro-cubanos, su otra hija combate el comunismo desde el mostrador de una pastelería de Brooklyn y vive obsesionada con su propia hija, una rebelde artista punk. Pero, a pesar de estos enfrentamientos, madres e hijas se ven unidas por lazos de cariño y ternura que superan toda distancia. Sus tormentosas relaciones culminan en un emocionante encuentro qué les permite descubrir en que lenguaje están soñando.

Beautifully written with vivid and interesting characters. ( )

i liked this but i did feel lost a lot of the time, mostly at the end. (which i think was intentional on some level, but i wasn't really a fan.) i almost should have anticipated that: this is a novel where many of the characters are at some point in the novel lost in a manic episode. and that is a structure that holds throughout the novel - all of the characters dabble in some sort of fantasy, whether it is celia's love letters, utterly removed from the everyday but still possible, felicia's religious devotion (not that santeria is in itself manic but even the other santeros are worried by the summer of coconuts), or lourdes' conversations with her dead father. it's a book about the extreme, and accordingly centres itself on mania. ( )