Memory Mambo

Achy Obejas, a Cuban lesbian living in Chicago, scored a huge hit with her 1994 collection of short stories, We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? Now in Memory Mambo, her first novel, she describes the life of Juani, a 25-year-old Cuban lesbian who has to deal with family, work, love, sex, and the weirdness of North American culture. Obejas's writing is sharp and mordantly funny. She understands perfectly how the romance of exile--from a homeland as well as from heterosexuality--and the mundane reality of everyday life balance one another. Memory Mambo is ultimately very moving in its depiction of what it means to find a new and finally safe sense of home.