SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND

The author of Make Your Home Among Strangers (2015) delivers a stunning second novel.

In this captivating narrative, Crucet immerses readers in the life of Ismael Reyes, a young man trying to come to terms with his Cuban heritage and the truth about his mother while navigating both the glamour and the danger of Miami. This is one way to describe this novel, and it’s not wrong. But neither is it quite right. What this summary leaves out is that Izzy needs to find another job, since lawyers have informed him that impersonating the rapper Pitbull at parties is not a viable career choice, and that, confronted by this impasse, he has decided to model his life on Tony Montana, as portrayed by Al Pacino. While savvy readers may have guessed the Scarface connection from the title, it seems safe to assume that few will anticipate the role that Lolita—an orca imprisoned in a tiny tank in the Miami Seaquarium—plays in Izzy’s life. Indeed, to call this a novel about Izzy at all is maybe to miss the point. Is Lolita a supporting player in Izzy’s story, or is he a supporting character in hers? One thing that should be clear by now is that Crucet isn’t interested in presenting a straightforward narrative, one with a beginning, a middle, and an end. For both Lolita and Izzy, the beginning never ends. Lolita spends many lonely decades remembering what it was like to be part of a community. Izzy’s need to know how he got from Cuba to the United States when he was 7 overrides his instinct for self-preservation. And Crucet fills a whole chapter listing Miami cliches that a novel such as hers should maybe contain more of—cigars, thongs, music, food smells, color—while also asking if we’re looking for Pitbull Miami or Miami Vice Miami, because they are not the same, and neither one is the real Miami. None of this is to say that Crucet sacrifices story for postmodern flourishes. Both Ismael and the whale are singularly compelling characters, and both will break your heart.

Unclassifiable and unforgettable.