Where on the spectrum of loyalty and betrayal does song begin? And where does it end? I think each writer has to decide this over and over.
—
Sharon Olds
The Voice of the Turtle: An Anthology of Cuban Stories by Caryl Phillips
Part of the Editor's Choice series.
- Mona Hatoum by Janine Antoni
- John Sayles by David L. Ulin
- Jim Lewis and Dale Peck
- Maureen Howard by Joanna Scott
- Steve Earle by David Gates
- Martin McDonagh by Fintan O'Toole
- Victor Garber and Alfred Molina by Mark Magill
- Gillian Wearing by Grady T. Turner
Interviews
- Billy Copley by Mimi Thompson
- David Clarkson: Altering States by Saul Ostrow
- Sarah Sze by Judith Hudson
Artists on Artists
- Defiance by Carole Maso
- Four Poems by Daniel Flores y Ascencio
- At the Déjà Vu by David Gilbert
- Quarantine by Jim Crace
- Duration by Ruth Danon
- Pure Hallow Tone by Sidney Wade
- Rosa: an excerpt from Slaughtermatic by Steve Aylett
First Proof
- Pamela Sneed’s Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery by Coco Fusco
- David Gates’s Preston Falls by Jenifer Berman
- The Voice of the Turtle: An Anthology of Cuban Stories by Caryl Phillips
- Luc Sante’s The Factory of Facts by Robert Polito
- Voices from Abroad: Baricco, Brizzi, Brussig, Darrieussecq, Nothamb by Minna Proctor
- Amistad: The Opera by Rone Shavers
- Finn Taylor’s Dream With the Fishes & Matthew Bright’s Freeway by Lynn Geller
- Lex Braes by Roland Legiardi-Laura
- James Sheehan by Thomas Bolt
- Arne Svenson’s Prisoners by Suzan Sherman
- Carrie Yamaoka by Bill Arning
- Elliott Green by David Schulz
- Rose Nolan by Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe
- Bob Dylan & Radiohead: Subterranean Homesickness by Vernon Reid
- Rufus Wainwright by Belissa Cohen
- Bonnie Collura by Jenifer Berman
Editor's Choice
This remarkable collection of stories spans the full breadth of a century of Cuban short story writing. The first story, “I Sent Quinine” by Alfonso Hernandez Cata, is set around the time of the 1898 War of Independence, while the last story, “Ask the Good Lord” by Marilyn Bobes concerns the love of a person and the loss of an island. Between these two fictions, there are 27 other stories by all the key Cuban writers of the century, including Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Antonio Benitez Rojo, and Reinaldo Arenas. (Only Alejo Carpentier is missing due to copyright difficulties.) The most astonishing feature of this anthology is the dazzling breadth and variety of forms and styles employed. The sheer inventiveness of these stories would be noteworthy in any national literature, but the fact that these stories all originate on one small Caribbean island is stunning. Peter Bush made numerous visits to Cuba during the 1990s in search of both neglected classics and the work of the “children of the revolution.” He encountered a short story tradition that has been fed by the Afro-Cuban oral tradition, the Creole, Basque, Spanish, and North American traditions, and the legacy of his research has resulted in an outstanding anthology.
—Caryl Phillips
The Voice of the Turtle: An Anthology of Cuban Stories, edited by Peter Bush, was recently published by Grove Atlantic Press.
Related
Grounded in the rhythms and vernacular of Brazil’s periferias, the writer’s debut story collection, The Sun on My Head, centers on the lives of young men growing up in Rio’s favela communities.
Fabulism and absurdity from an under-appreciated Italian master.
Passion overwhelms comprehension. Comprehension kills passion.
Originally published in
BOMB 63,
Spring 1998
Featuring interviews with Gillian Wearing, Mona Hatoum, Jim Lewis, Dale Peck, Maureen Howard, John Sayles, Steve Earle, Martin McDonagh, Victor Garber, and Alfred Molina.
