Animal tropical

By Pedro Juan Gutiérrez

Book Overview

Echoing the raw vitality of Henry Miller, Tropical Animal brings the return of the already infamous Pedro Juan, the seductive protagonist at the heart of Dirty Havana Trilogy. Pursued by Gloria, a proud and sophisticated prostitute on a mission to curb his predatory instincts, Pedro Juan is holed up in his crumbling Havana apartment, painting, with a growing sense of melancholy as he observes the lives of the hustlers, hipsters, and hookers in the city below him. An invitation to Sweden, of all places--cold, unwelcoming, the antithesis of Pedro's Cuba--gives him an official way out, and the phone manner of his potential hostess offers incentive enough for him to leave for the literary life in Europe. However, once there he finds himself haunted by memories of the passionate Gloria and increasingly uninspired by his new environment. Does Pedro Juan, legendary seducer and imbiber of hard liquor, finally have to admit that his game is over--to be replaced by this more balanced, more secure, colder existence? In tight, tough prose Pedro Juan Guti?rrez explores human animalism with a joyous fearlessness absent from much of our contemporary culture and sheds a brilliant new light into the depths and complexities of the soul.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786714999
• ISBN13: 9780786714995
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A good read again- more of Pedro Juan G's revelations.

If you are familiar with this author's writing style and his themes, you will easily identify with this book as it is an extension or better yet a part of a series of four books that depict Cuba from his own personal experiences (the other three are Trilogia sucia de la Habana, El Rey de la Habana and El Insaciable hombre araña). This one is more focused on two periods in his life and his experiences with two women in particular- Gloria and Agneta. Gloria is his Cuban interest and Agneta, a Swedish female that was a part of his life for a brief period of time. What we see in this book in comparison to la Trilogia and El Insaciable hombre araña is Pedro Juan Gutierrez in his fifties, still destitute, poor, unstable in every sense of the word (professionally, monetarily and relationship wise) who is holding on to a dream of being an author and a professional artist. Due to the numerous obstacles that stand in his way and his inability to dedicate time to being what he wants to become we witness the same issues that were part of his life in his earlier years as a younger person. His life as we see it is dictated by his insatiable desire for a women's body, rum and drugs. Out from these experiences the reader is also getting a small history lesson about what Cuba was like in the 90's and still very much so today however, the 90's seemed to be the culminating point of the modern Cuban depression due to the fall of the Soviet Union. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I was not at all offended by the language and vivid descriptions of his actions. All was taken in context. Once again I found this writing style of Pedro Juan Gutierrez daring but true and reveals details and the consequences that sometimes result due to extreme poverty.