El lobo el bosque y el hombre nuevo [Spanish]

Extraordinary story whose author also wrote the screenplay for the award winning Cuban film, Strawberry and Chocolate (1993), directed by one of Cuba's legendary filmmakers, Tomas Gutierrez Alea. This book by Senel Paz is a treat if you saw the film because this story (or novella) gives much more detail about how Diego "became gay", details not given in the film, perhaps because the images in this text were considered too sexually graphic for the screen. This text, as well as the film, offers a self-critical view of Cuba's censorship and homophobia and yet it offers so much more: an insight to Cuban colloquialisms, class disparities, Afro-Cuban religion and intellectual dialogue.

As many people already know, this short story is the basis for the Cuban film "Fresa y Chocolate." David, a straight college student and Marxist idealist, inadvertantly befriends Diego, an older, somewhat queeny gay man with strong intellectual and cultural interests. The two have very different notions of what it means to be a patriot and what it means to serve Cuba. You can read the short story in less time than it takes to watch the movie. You should do both! I had seen the film umpteen times before I sat down to read this novel. One would think that my familiarity with the novel's premise would make me immune to any reaction to it. No way. In very few pages this novella hit me hard; the ruminations on friendship and the final paragraph, in which David speaks about how his life has been transformed by his friendship with Diego, are moving and very powerful---beyond the admitted power of the film version. Simply put, this is a wonderful novella/short story that I will be revisiting often. [Those who know both the film and the novella will note imporant differences. he film added two major characters and a subplot that was important in extending a short story into a 90 minute movie. The extension worked and helped flesh out the character of David, the film's straight protagonist. On the other hand, the novella/short story has a minor character who does not exist in the film and whose presence illuminates the importance of friendship to David's emotional growth.]

In Cuba, la Habana, David is a shy man, that believes in the revolution, with prejudges. He meets Diego, he is an highly educated homo, also he is a religious man. In their friendship, Diego will lead the intelectual education of David, with the work of Lezama Lima as the master. But Diego will show David a different life, being like they really are. They will recreate the breakfasts that lezama describes in "Paradiso", in that way they will feel like "Real Cubans". This short book is about friendship, and about the problems that militar and religious believes carry with them, of love, etc. Further more you can also learn some cuban argot. This is an splendid narration which takes place 30 years after the Revolution.