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The Halfway House (2009)

by Guillermo Rosales(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0811218023 (ISBN13: 9780811218023)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

New Directions

review 1: A vivid, realistic look at a young Cuban exile's life, differing markedly from the traditionally well-off image of other Cuban exiles, who fled Castro to the freedom of Miami. William Figueras however seems to have traded one tyranny for another, and his bourgeois relatives want nothing to do with the emaciated former Communist and teacher, whose father had been a lawyer. His constant reading of literature and his kindled hope for a future belie the dirty, substandard boarding house, whose proprietors sap any good due to the inhabitants. Stolen welfare checks and abusive treatment are the tip of what goes on at the home. When he finally has his dreams of decent housing and loving wife within his reach, the reader wants to believe as much as he does that the halfway house i... mores just that.
review 2: The reviews praise this book for exposing the horrors of Miami's board-and-cares (what are apparently called boarding homes there), which I suppose is useful in some ways, but a good newspaper feature would have done it better. I was struck by the author's need to repeat the same detail about each character (other than the two or three main ones) whenever they appeared so that we'd be able to remember who they were. Somehow that doesn't seem like a good sign. And the conclusion was utterly predictable from the moment hope glimmered. Perhaps a better translation would have helped. less

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