![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Accidental cannibals, tenderhearted killers, angst-ridden ghosts and well-behaved artists soon populate its topsy-turvy universe. Meanwhile, the cathedral, once a beacon of progress, remains an empty shell, haunting and taunting its residents as a symbol of modern Cuba’s social malaise. Within the novel’s opening pages, his son splits open his neighbor’s head with a book, and this incident - demonstrating one of literature’s least appreciated uses - is a harbinger of the violence to come. But his benedictions can’t save the city, and the family’s arrival christens one of its darkest chapters. Arturo Stuart, a Sacramentalist preacher, kicks off the action by moving his family to the Cuban city of Cienfuegos, where he’s been called by God to erect a fortress to his faith.Īrturo is part caricature (“Blessings” is his preferred greeting) and all charisma: The congregation soars from 20 to nearly a thousand because of him. ![]() The cathedral at the heart of Marcial Gala’s new novel does precisely none of these things, but, then again, virtue was never really on the mind of its visionary founder. A “virtuous” structure, according to John Ruskin, must “act well, and do the things it was intended to do in the best way.” It must “speak well, and say the things it was intended to say in the best words.” It must also “look well, and please us by its presence, whatever it has to do or say.” ![]()
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