Road Reads

"Es Cuba," by Lea Aschkenas

BOOK: "Es Cuba," by Lea Aschkenas (Seal, $15.95)

TARGET AUDIENCE: Travelers and lovers.

The phrase "Es Cuba," when spoken in Havana, is often accompanied by a shrug, as in "Yeah, it's crazy [or frustrating, or illegal], but . . . that's Cuba." Aschkenas goes there knowing little of the country or its life under Castro, but soon learns that there are two Cubas. There's the one tourists see from their hotels (or at the "dollar stores" that sell things we'd consider commonplace, but which Cubans rarely can afford). And then there's the one experienced by locals, where survival requires inventiveness and a flexible view of the law. (To Cubans, the tourists' Cuba is la vida plastica -- the plastic life.)

The book might also be titled "Es Alfredo," because the young Cuban Aschkenas meets, loves and eventually marries is, like his country, a bundle of contradictions: macho and tender; wise and naive; patriotic and resentful. Together they try to move between the two Cubas, but sometimes their patience is tested beyond its tensile strength. All the better for the reader, who learns about Cuba from their struggles in it.

--Jerry V. Haines