THE ISLAND OF CUNDEAMOR

This bracingly bitter novel is set in eponymous fictional territory: an “island” located within mainland Florida, where Cuban émigrés fall in and out of love and trouble, fend off or join forces with the shadowy, Mafia-like “Crabb Company” (a reputed drug and assassination-for-hire empire), and debate whether exile in an alien sanctuary is preferable to facing continual injustice and peril in one’s homeland. Vazquez Diaz tends to let his characters preach to one another (and us), but the briskly sketched characters of passive sculptor Nicotiano and his unfaithful wife Mireya, middle-aged and newly liberated Betty (“Betty Boop”) Barroso, the manipulative and possibly malevolent queenpin Aunt Ulalume, and even a pensive guard-dog named Kafka, among others, provide many lively moments, and make this bubbling little anatomy of endangered machismo, feminine revolt, and painstakingly measured degrees of freedom an irreverent and thought-provoking delight.