AUTHOR: Marilyn Bobes
PUBLISHER: Editorial Guantanamera
GENRE: Literature
READER’S NAME: Jeanette Lockington
“Alguien Tiene Que Llorar Otra Vez” definitely merits translation for publication in the U.S., particularly at this time of the “Me, Too” movement and the rise of women in politics and history. Undeniably Cuban in setting and time frame, unique in its delineation of characters and human experience, the book unabashedly, without falsification, explores feminism and life as a woman through the eyes of friends, lovers, and oneself in the mirror.
Through a series of loosely-related stories, monologues, dialogues, and reflections, evoking literary fragments, philosophy, travel mementos, and youthful memories, Cary, the fictional author and narrator, reveals a bold, unaffected, flawed, complex, and evolving portrait of womanhood and self-authentication. Her commentary, along with additional perspectives from supporting cast members, details a variety of life situations and personalities. They traverse several countries over two to three decades, replete with behavioral and attitudinal shifts, changes in means of communication and technology, and the resulting societal fabric.
The narrator, as well as the narration itself, struggles to emulate the ideal, while conflicted by perceived aberrations and shortcomings.
Secrets and explanations are revealed, morality and modernity are assessed, not as censure or judgment, but as multi-faceted, interwoven slices of prickly reality in the quest for understanding, connection, self-awareness, and acceptance. Always from a fiercely feminine perspective, the author leads the reader to know the characters in deeply personal ways, at times eliciting support and empathy toward them, at others, exasperation and revulsion, culminating in unexpected yet inevitable results.
Born in 1955 in Havana, author Marilyn Bobes León is for many readers an institution in Cuba, representing the feminine voice in literature. This book is an expanded and updated version of the author’s original book of stories, “Alguien Tiene que Llorar,” which in its first edition won the House of the Americas prize in 1995. This expanded edition of 2018 was awarded the Editorial Guantanamera Premier Prize; the prestigious Carmen Balcells Literary Agency has chosen it as deserving of that historical honor. The author is a poet, story teller, and journalist specializing in cultural themes. Her poetry collections include “La Aguja En El Pajar” [“The Needle in the Haystack”] (1979) and “Hallar el modo” [“To Find the Way”] (1989).
