Tristan and the Hispanics

In this sardonic tale of two cultures, New Yorker Tristan GranadosYale undergrad, son of a Cuban-born screenwriter and WASP motheris dispatched to Tampa, Fla., to make funeral arrangements after the death of his paternal grandfather, a modestly successful leftist novelist. Cultural differences spark comic but more often inane folderol as Tristan, a patrician figure among the the dead writer's extended Cuban family, tries to arrange for a cremation. Although this symbol of rational Yankee officiousness is blasphemy to the Cubans, Tristan is treated with a pathetic deference that yields his endorsement of a raucous wake. In a biting twist, Tristan is won over to respect for his late grandfather when he discovers the old man's classy Volvo (``with Bengy box''), his Toshiba 3200 (``one up on Dad's 3100'') and his collection of ``Bruce CDs.'' Yglesias ( Home Again ) acidly skewers the pomposity of Anglo culture and the desperate assimilationist tendencies of the emigre Cuban community. Given the fervor of his unstinting condemnation of bourgeois culturefrom which not even poor Cubans are sparedreaders may wonder why an alternative cultural order is not set forth. (Mar . )