Un verano incesante.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

by Luis de la Paz. Miami: Universal, 1996.

Luis de la Paz stands out among the fine group of Cuban writers of the emerging Mariel generation. Many of these writers, now in their late thirties or forties, arrived in the United States as teens or young adults with the Mariel exodus of 1980 and are just now making felt the impact of their creative energy. Much of their work is nostalgic or focuses on the immigrant's difficulty in adjusting to life in a new country, and the stories of De la Paz share these characteristics to some degree. However, De la Paz is short on sentimentality and long on insight. His primary concern is with the complexities of his characters' psyches--how they deal with the ambiguities of everyday existence, and how seemingly insignificant occurrences alter their outlooks.

The strength of De la Paz's narrative is in his deft use of language. He implies rather than explains, delineates rather than demonstrates. Deceptively simple and prosaic, his words are charged with insinuation. A detail can suggest a psychological crisis. In "Ejercicio con arbor y atardecer" [Exercise with Tree and Dusk], a young man catches a glimpse of his buddy naked in the shower. The fleeting sight precipitates a flood of conflicting emotions, intimated but never defined. The soldier realizes suddenly that he hasn't seen a woman in a long time. Does he desire a woman? Does he desire his friend? Does he want to continue the friendship, or is he relieved that circumstances will separate the two men? The character's anxiousness over not being able to clarify his feelings is paralleled by our own over not being able to articulate exactly what is happening to him.

In the best of these pieces, the author merely suggests a plot. In "Ojala no exista" [Let Him Not Exist], we understand easily that a young...