Reviews for The wise women of Havana

The average rating for The wise women of Havana based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-08-23 00:00:00 Steven Excell This book was kind of annoying because it was very very predictable and every problem had a really easy solution that always worked out just as planned. It's set up to include the struggles of life in Cuba in the 30's, but that is not what's delivered. I ended up skipping many pages and not missing a thing.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-04 00:00:00 Doyal Steward Go ahead, say "dark, gypsy eyes" one more time. I dare you! The repetitive nature of this book is what got me in the end. It was interesting and then it got incredibly boring. The women in this novel hardly held any wisdom, at least nothing profound. This novel revolves around the two families of a recently married couple, Marguita and Lorenzo, while Cuba is in the midst of the Great Depression in the 1930's. I greatly enjoy novels about familiar time periods that take place in different locations (alright, anything outside of the United States, honestly there is more to the world!). The concept was good and I enjoyed reading about Marguita and Lorenzo in their first months of marriage. However, once the instance with Lorenzo's sister, Lolo, happened, it started to go down hill for me. The women began to become unbelievable and were poorly characterized. Marguita's obsessiveness was obtrusive and Lolo's ignorance was disheartening. And yet the only thing that brought these women together was pregnancy?! No, no, at that point this novel was no longer a story but a failed attempt by a man to understand women. We're not that hard to understand! We are more than just babies and hysteria! And yet that is all I seemed to gain from this novel. Of course the male characters were vivid and unique. And yes there was that Nurse Diaz at the end who showed the rising of women's strength and knowledge, but she had such a small role that it was a blip in the splendor that could have been this story. Even the vibrancy and beauty of Cuba seemed to lack, even though it was continuously emphasized that it still existed despite the Great Depression.