Fumando espero
Jorge Angel Pérez,
Bid & Co Editor (Venezuela), 2005
FUMANDO ESPERO by the author of the prize-winning Lapsus calami (1995) is another romp about sexually uninhibited Latin men trying to escape their provincial torpor, all given apparent literary gravitas through their encounters with great intellectuals. Virgilio, a voluntary exile searching for his vocation as a writer ends up in Argentina at a time in which loving books is taboo. He sees the years under the populist leader Juan Perón from his flat and encounters Jorge Luis Borges, Gombrowicz, and other important characters in his travels. The sex this time is gay – but it matters little to the metaphor about artistic sensibility and the hungry libido. Extremely funny and entertaining, Fumando espero shows us that gay Cubans have a lot of mileage. It won the Romulo Gallegos International Fiction Prize 2005. – GJ