The Wise Women of Havana.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara
• Position: Review of novel by Jose Raul Bernardo - Book Review

by Jose Raul Bernardo. New York: Rayo, 2002.

Set in Havana in 1938, Jose Raul Bernardo's delicious new novel captures the feel, smells, and sounds of the quickly changing tropical metropolis after the Great Depression. Lorenzo and Marguita are a happy pair of newlyweds expecting their first baby. They have rented a small, bright apartment where they are perfectly content. However, the Depression has ruined Lorenzo's father's business and now, to make ends meet, his parents have insisted the young couple move in with them and help with expenses.

A vivacious, working-class girl from a noisy Cuban family, Marguita has qualms about joining Lorenzo's austere Spanish household. Lorenzo's eldest sister, Lucinda, died of consumption and their mother, Carmela, always wears black. A younger sister, Asuncion, is deaf, and the middle sister Lolo, is a bitter, angry spinster. However, Lolo's hostile demeanor masks feelings of inadequacy. Still a virgin, Lolo is really curious about sex. More out of inquisitiveness than maliciousness, she spies on the young couple making love, witnessing an intimate act considered indecent by uptight, upper-class ladies. Marguita is so traumatized that she runs home to tell her mother, Dolores, a wise woman in her fifties who knows just what to do.

First, she contrives to have her daughter and son-in-law rent their own little house and cleverly engineers improvements to make the place livable. Then, she schemes to buy a refrigerator "on the cheap" and even manages to get a crib. Dolores, who has her husband, Maximiliano, wrapped around her little finger, talks him into making sacrifices for the daughter they both adore. But even snug in her comfy home in her old neighborhood, Marguita can't forget Lolo's terrible affront. She wants vengeance.

When their baby boy is born, the happy couple calls him Lorenzo Manuel, Manuel being the name of the physician who delivered him. Immediately the doctor and his wife, Celina, assume they are to be the godparents and, in order to avoid squabbles, Lorenzo and Marguita acquiesce. Celina plans an elaborate christening party, and even though Marguita has sworn never to forgive Lolo, there is no gracious way to exclude her from the festivities. At the gathering, two unexpected things happen: the ardently anticlerical Maximiliano becomes friends with the priest, Father Francisco, and Lolo catches the eye of--of all people--the priest's acolyte, Father Alonso.

In the meantime, Marguita is...