Large print book
Havana bay : a novel / Martin Cruz Smith.
Record details
- ISBN: 0375706798 (Large Pr.)
- ISBN: 0679426620
- ISBN: 0375706798 (pbk.)
- ISBN: 9780679426622
- Physical Description: 463 p. ; 24 cm.
- Publisher: New York : Random House : 1999.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Large type books. |
| Genre: | Mystery fiction. Crime thrillers. |
Available copies
- 5 of 6 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Elkford Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 6 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elkford Public Library | FC SMI (Text) | 35170000310151 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Monthly Selections - #2 April 1999
It was inevitable somehow that Arkady Renko, hero of Gorky Park, would find his way to Cuba. As Russian as he is cynical, as disgusted with the capitalistic excesses of the new Russia as he was with the bungling bureaucracy of the Communists, the melancholy Renko, now suicidal after the tragic death of his lover, Irina, comes to Havana to help his longtime friend General Pribluda, but he arrives just as the general's body is being pulled from the bay. But is it really Pribluda? Renko won't make a positive identification, and soon enough unknown forces are trying to kill him, unaware that if they had just waited a little longer, Arkady would have done the job himself. Instead, the attempt on his life rejuvenates the woebegone investigator ("I don't mind a car hitting me, but I do mind a driver trying to hit me"). The Renko series has always lived on irony--a cop who cares about truth working in a system designed to distort it--and this installment is perhaps the most heavily ironic yet: Renko, in a country where Russians are now despised for selling out socialism, again struggling simultaneously against both an unyielding bureaucracy and the chaotic forces that would overthrow it--and working with a feisty female cop who is the mirror image of the young Renko in Gorky Park. Smith's beautifully evoked Cuba--rusting idealism set against resurgent decadence--makes the perfect foil for a melancholic truth-seeker whose determination masks the best irony of all: he doesn't particularly believe in the very things he seeks to defend. Readers who respond to the browbeaten detectives in our "Hard-Boiled Gazetteer to the British Isles" (p.1456) will love Renko. ((Reviewed April 15, 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 1999 April #1
The welcome return of one of the two (along with George Smiley) most memorable characters in modern thrillers. Arkady Renko, the smart, humane, often despairing but idealistic and persistent Moscow detective introduced in Gorky Park (1981) and brought back in Polar Star (1989) and Red Square (1992) is still attempting to nail the bad guys. But in chaotic post Soviet Russia, a world where the villains seem to be proliferating, his job keeps getting harder. Still reeling from a personal tragedy (likely to unsettle devoted readers of the series), Arkady seizes the opportunity to leave Moscow for a brief trip to Havana. His old acquaintance Pribluda, a KGB bureaucrat, has apparently turned up dead in the harbor. But is it Pribluda? The body is too decayed to allow definite identification. The Cubans, struggling to survive in a world without the Soviet Union, have a barely restrained loathing for Russians and no great interest in investigating the death. Arkady, who s contemplating suicide and feeling useless and lost, is energized hours after having entered Cuba by an attempt on his life. He manages to kill his attacker, thereby becoming a figure of considerable interest to the small Russian diplomatic community and various factions in the Cuban government. With the help of Ofelia Osorio, a bright, competent, maverick policewoman, Arkady begins to sort out the tangled threads of the case. Smith has always demonstrated a genius for detail, and his powers are working at their peak here; his portraits of a threadbare, vibrant Havana, the various classes in Castro's classless Cuba, and the resilient, sardonic Cuban response to an impoverished existence, are vivid, assured, and convincing. Smith has also always had a genius for complex conspiracies, and the one that Arkady and Ofelia uncover is typically audacious and believable. The climax, as Arkady struggles for his life in the waters of Havana Bay, is masterfully paced. A strong, satisfying addition to one of the most memorable and idiosyncratic series of modern thrillers. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection; Author tour) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 1999 February #1
Arkady Renko is back, too, but far from Gorky Park. He's investigating the death of a Russian embassy worker in Cuba. Copyright 1999 Library Journal Reviews - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 1999 May #1
Arkady Renko, perhaps Russia's last honest policeman, has arrived in Cuba to look into the death of a colleague. Opening on a corpse scene so gruesome that Virginia's Kay Scarpetta might get the willies, the plot quickly submerges into a surreal cauldron of dark beliefs, Cuban patriotism, and American wheeling and dealing. Where in Polar Star (Random, 1989) Smith explored the coldest regions, here he glories in the Caribbean riot of sensual heat and light. There are cameo characters who capture Fidel's Cuba while Arkady struggles with the elemental challenges of survival and discovery. This novel illuminates the dark corners of a sunny Havana and deftly portrays a society trapped in a Soviet legacy of deprivation and control. Smith writes incomparably well while willing the reader to reach for understanding of the human passions he describes. Every library will soon have a long waiting list for this spectacular new book. [A BOMC main selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/99.]ABarbara Conaty, Library of Congress Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
