Exile: A Novel Book

Review: Exile by Ann Ireland

This was an interesting book but somewhat on the boring side. It's a witty satire on cross-cultural expectations and motives. The characters are stereotypical individuals and the author consistently places people's prejudices and assumptions on display. Ann Ireland is a talented writer and the reader can take what she writes as amusement or be appalled by the content. I myself didn't find any humor that stood out but I felt the main character was egotistical and somewhat erotica in some ways. His thoughts and opinions were way out of line and not many people liked his viewpoints…..

The story is about a poet and journalist, Carlos Romero Estevez, a Later American military dictator whose writings was banned in Latin America and he was wanted by the state. He hid out for awhile in his sister's basement and he could never leave that place. He was also putting his sister and her family in danger if she was caught harboring a fugitive. He had no where to go and felt like he was in a prison and going insane.

Some time went by and his sister Marta went to the basement with some good news for Carlos. She explained to Carlos that she got in touch with an organization called CAFÉ, "Canadian Alliance for Freedom of Expression" in Vancouver and they wanted to help him. They wanted to bring him to the west coast of Canada as a refugee. His sister was elated but Carlos just thought she was happy to get rid of him.

Carlos was rescued by the charitable group devoted to aiding oppressed writers and taken him to Vancouver to start a new life and he could relish in freedom. However, they had specific rules for his first year. They set him up in a college with his own office where he could right and someday have his work published. He was not paid to write, they were just giving him a year to gather his writings and then they would help him find a job and make sure he was settled. They also placed him in a rooming house with another one of their refugee's free of charge for one year but it turned out that he and his roommate couldn't get along but they managed anyway. They gave him an allowance for food and clothing every week but he seemed to take that for granted. He would go to fine restaurants, drinking establishments and top of the line clothing stores until he ran out of money and kept asking for more. He was becoming a burden to the group. He really wasn't doing much writing. He was living an eroticize lifestyle, his behavior was eccentric and he didn't make any real friends.

Carlos thought he found a new life, new freedom, and new powerful friends who would keep supporting him even after the year was up. Warning after warning from the Alliance group with only three months left he was still confident that they would help him. However, soon his illusions are dispelled and he finds life in exile to be a new kind of prison….