DeMille's character-driven story introduces Daniel "Mac" McCormick, a veteran of the Afghanistan war who has settled in the Florida Keys to run a chartered fishing boat. His mate Jack is a Vietnam Vet. Mac is up to his ears in debt, and frankly, he's a little bored.
Mac is contacted by an anti-Castro group of Cuban exiles who want his help for a covert mission to recover money hidden by exiles when they fled the revolution. "Behind every great fortune is a crime," Mac thinks, not wanting to know how the money had been made. It's a dangerous mission, but the idea of the reward of three million dollars is enticing--as is Sara Ortega who will be his accomplice. They will go to Cuba undercover as part of a Yale tour group.
After a trip to Cuba, DeMille wrote this book to give a portrait of the country and to show the tenuous 'thaw' in American-Cuban relations. Readers tour the island along with Mac, Sara, and the tour group. The island is full of Hemingway places and references, including Islands in the Stream in which Hemingway wrote, "The Cubans double-cross each other."
The 'affair' is a double entendre, for not only is this an episode or event in Mac's life, he also has a love affair with Sara.
The story is told in the first person by Mac, who has a welcomed dry sense of humor, but a decidedly masculine sensibility that did not always sit well with me. Sara is a character who will appeal to women: strong, sure, smart, and brave.
There is more an atmosphere of threat for most of the book, with a thrilling sea chase conclusion. Character, place, and the love story are the hallmarks of the bulk of the book.
Will the love affair survive Cuba, land of daiquiris, danger, and palm trees? Or was it a holiday fling more based on proximity and an awareness that death could be waiting for them? Read it and find out.
I received a free book from the publisher through a Goodreads giveaway.
The Cuban Affair
by Nelson DeMille
Simon and Schuster
Publication Sept 19, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment