Rereading the novel Paradise fifty years later

Getting to Havana at dawn, with two suitcases and one book: Paradise, a worn out copy, an invitation to reading …

A few years ago a friend came home and brought me a gift. It was an extraordinary gift: a book. When I opened the first page he had written a brief dedication: [My first Paradise is now your first Paradise: “The hand of Baldovina separated the tulles of the entrance …” continue and do not stop].

The truth is that among journalistic, academic and cultural type emergencies… the reading was postponed until early September this year when the book also led me to the condition of adopted habanero.

Getting to Havana at dawn, with two suitcases and one book: Paradise, the  worn-out copy, the invitation to read … the discovery that 50 years ago it was published in Cuba.

I continued reading, the keys outlined by Lezama reaffirm that as Cintio Vitier writes: “… the better cultural training the reade has he will enjoy many pages more of Paradise”. Hence the reason for my delay, even though I do not know if you can understand its real dimension.

I went on, I enjoy the pleasures of snooping in the book, and even more, the feeling of rediscovering the covered pages. This reading demands attention: go over details, passages … immerse themselves in the descriptions and warn of the constant coming and going of the narrative, where lies its greatest charm.

A Cuban novel summit of the twentieth century, renowned among the letters of all time, up to its fiftieth anniversary. The silence settles on it and a reader who debuts in its pages warns. I prefer to believe it’s something casual!

The warm celebration should motivate other forays into the text, reissues to open the doors to enjoyment … spaces enabling the controversy and enrichment. Young hands, other than mine, should do this, “their Paradise”.

I’ve never been afraid of silence. No matter … still I am crossing the pages, I walk along the streets and discover – increasingly astonished -the book-city, book-nation, book -universe. Sad that he has not lived his “first Paradise.”

Footnote: One of the few texts found about it was written by Arturo Arango for the magazine La Gaceta de Cuba: “Paradise lost”. It is in number 3, belonging to the months from May to June, 2016. p. 64.