![]() ![]() Gringo is a hero in his neighborhood, a teenager who has admiring followers and, at the same time, vociferous detractors. ![]() Yet there is a moral to this progression, one that cannot be ignored as the hero/antihero slides into an inevitable sky-fall toward his destiny. One human action follows and exacerbates another in an endless progression of base self-interest. ![]() The seemingly casual interaction between the characters, and the insatiable desire of some of these characters to rise above their circumstances, is what encompasses the spirit of the book. The Black Cathedral offers the reader biographical/autobiographical insight into remorseless criminality and the blatant disposability of human lives in a “dog-eat-dog” environment where survival is instinctual. Running through its entirety is a series of human emotions that often blind us to the failings of any society: passion, love, hatred, disposability, and family and societal dysfunction. Apart from the obviously Cuban loci and equally identifiable Hispanic names, The Black Cathedral could have been set anywhere that lesser fortunate masses of humanity congregate. Its two-hundred-plus pages blend together in a juxtaposition of actions and opinions, points of view and vicarious commentaries. Due to its narrative structure, a series of short paragraphs moving from character to character, and from present to past then past to present, it is certainly a “read at one sitting” novel. THE BLACK CATHEDRALis an interesting piece of prose writing. ![]()
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