Chiquita. (Little One)

Reviewed by Carlos Rodríguez Martorell, East Elmhurst, NY -- Críticas, 5/15/2008

Rodríguez, Antonio Orlando.
Spain/U.S.: Alfaguara: Santillana. 2008. 547p. ISBN 978-970-58-0389-5. pap. $19.99.FICTION

Winner of the prestigious Alfaguara Prize, Chiquita novelizes the life of Espiridiona “Chiquita” Cenda (1869–1939), a Cuban vaudeville artist of tiny proportions (only 26 inches high) who became internationally famous around 1900. Chiquita left for the United States when she was well into her twenties, fleeing a country ravaged by the wars of independence; she later became a famous cabaret artist, had innumerable love affairs, performed at the White House, and befriended everybody from Sarah Bernhardt to the former queen of Hawaii. Throughout, Rodríguez vividly evokes the end of colonial Cuba and the rise of the United States as a superpower, but his skills as a novelist don’t match his talent as a chronicler. Despite Chiquita’s astonishing life experience, she never fully emerges as a strong, engaging character; even the novel’s most dramatic moments convey a curious sense of detachment. Some tentative tricks to enliven the novel also fail: about midway through the 500-page volume, a piece of jewelry Chiquita received in her childhood from a Russian prince is stolen. Three gruesome murders ensue, the talisman reappears rapidly without explanation, and the episode is entirely forgotten for the next 200 pages. The killings, it turns out, involved a 400-year-old secret community of midgets that gave Chiquita supernatural powers—and then ceased to exist. Unlike the author’s rushed fantastic devices, historical trivia (e.g., the biography of Toulouse-Lautrec’s lover) fills hundreds of pages. Bookstores and libraries alike should stock some volumes of this occasionally appealing but mostly forgettable novel—if only for the commercial allure of the Alfaguara Prize.

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