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Jay Lillie gets it right
“Havana Passage” is smart entertainment
Havana Passage
By Jay Lillie
Ivy House Publishing Group
5122 Bur Oak Circle, Raleigh,
NC 27612
www.jaylillie.com
www.ivyhousebooks.com
By Peter Swanson
Editor, Cuba Cruising Net
Havana Passage, international lawyer Jay Lillie’s debut novel, is not just a smart book but a profoundly optimistic one as well.
Havana Passage is smart because it manages to entertain while dramatizing the complicated forces shaping Washington’s relationship with Havana—a perverse synergy that has denied one of the world’s most unspoiled cruising grounds to us North American mariners.
Though I dislike the term, Havana Passage is what publishers call a thriller, a tale of more or less ordinary folks buffeted by political forces that are as mysterious as they are extraordinary. The mix will be familiar; the book features murder, kidnapping, political infighting, an escape by motorboat, days and nights aboard a liferaft and a love interest. (Thankfully, the last two were not coincident.)
The story begins with the premise—held forth by a promising law student—that the U.S. embargo with its travel ban would be found unconstitutional if anyone ever got around to a legal challenge. Her innocent foray into the morass of Cuban-American politics resonates with the president of the United States, also female, who is casting about for a politically viable way of ending the embargo.
That’s what I found profoundly optimistic: That any U.S. president (even, say, a Hillary) would dare acknowledge that our Cuba policy is like Lenin’s mummified corpse to the Russians, an embarrassing relic of the Cold War that needs burying. The other bit optimism, which seems based on Lillie’s professional dealings with young mid-level Cuban officialdom, is that the Cubans themselves are ready and able to move their country into the Post-Castro era without interference from Miami, Washington or Caracas. Let us hope, I say.
No first time novelist is going to have the command of atmosphere of an Alan Furst or the nuanced storytelling of a LeCarre or Gerald Seymour, but Lillie manages to convey the feel of what its like to be an American traveling in Cuba. When dealing with Cuban officialdom, no matter how collegial it appeared outwardly, I always felt there was a hidden agenda at play just below the surface. Lillie captures this perfectly.
Related to this is another quality that recommends the book. This Cuba endeavor of mine has brought me in contact with all sorts of players on both sides of the political divide. My problem with so many of those who would rid us of the embargo is their unabashed refusal to utter a critical word about what is clearly a repressive regime in Havana. Lillie understands that bad U.S. policy does not, in and of itself, legitimize the behavior of the Cuban government. In the book, the ailing Castro’s heavy handed, charismatically challenged underlings are among the bad guys.
Reading Havana Passage suggests to me that Jay Lillie Esq. is a scrapper, a quality that should be encouraged in anyone with the wherewithal to spearhead a legal challenge against the travel ban. Buy Lillie’s book and tell your friends about it. It’s a good read.
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