Garbageland

In the first novel of a new trilogy, Cuban master Abreu, the author of Habanera fue (She Was from Havana, Muchnik, 1998) and a member of Reinaldo Arenas's intimate circle in Havana, creates an anti-utopian world that mirrors and exaggerates selected contemporary evils consumption, hedonism, technological dependence, dictatorships, and disparities between the First and Third worlds. His disturbing and entertaining social commentary reads like science fiction: Upper-echelon consumers purchase digital sexual companions, strut around with multi-media advertisements strapped to their bodies, and live like video game protagonists. The have-nots, meanwhile, inhabit a chaotic underworld, scrambling for survival and striving to find the mythical El Monte, an Edenic wilderness. With its lethal sunshine, high-tech battles, Mickey Mouse deities, and digital dreams, the world depicted by Abreu is close enough to the present to make this a chilling read. Interspersing choppy, fragmented prose with lyrical and fluid passages, Abreu creates a text that is both artistic and deft. Forthcoming titles in this trilogy are Orl n Twentyfive and El Masturbador (The Masturbator). Highly recommended for a wide range of bookstores and public and academic libraries with science fiction and literature collections. Tatiana de la Tierra, Undergraduate Lib., SUNY at Buffalo