Hello,
I finished reading the 385 pages of "The Havana Room" last Friday night. Overall I'd have to give the book a B-. I was a little disappointed by the end. I didn't like the potential of Bill and Judith getting back together. First of all I don't see that as being realistic. Relationships break up for a reason. As a general rule unless things change dramatically two people shouldn't get back together. But overall I'm not very interested in whether they do eventually get back together. These characters are one book characters. I'm not really interested in seeing what happens with them going forward.
The theme of this book is everything isn't what it seems to be, that is also the case in most of life.
For people who haven't read the book I'm not going to spill a lot of the details. Did you think that Ha would play such a central role in the book? Where do you think he ended up? He obviously was more than just the maintainence man. He knew people that clean up dead bodies. I think he might have worked for Chairman Mao, but I don't think it was only as a cook. Did you like how Ha and others used the secret of the Havana Room was against H.L. and his crew? I thought that was one of the most interesting ideas of the book.
To me the most tortured character and the one who ended up the worse was Jay Rainey. He only met his daughter for one brief time and that wasn't under the best of circumstances. What do you think about Sally never finding out that Jay was her father? What ultimately happened to Jay? What happened in Jay's life that he decided not to tell Sally the truth? I'm good with her not finding out who her real dad is. Don't you think ultimately she's going to find out who her real Dad is. Although Sally is young, she still might have a sense that everything isn't what it seems. She's being raised by two people who aren't her real parents and the only Bill seems to know that. Does Bill owe her an explanation later in Sally's life.
We also found out what happened to Jay's Mom? I've seen that story line in other media, for instance, "The Town". I saw that ending coming a mile away and that ending feels a bit tired now. Was what happened to Jay's Mom a surprise to you? Do you think that's an interesting take?
If Jay is the most tortured character, Allison Sparks has to be second. What do you think of what happened to her? She seemed to have landed back on her feet back in her old unhappy life. It may not be a good life but it is what she knows. She seems to be the good little worker bee, the sort of person who gets lost in her work. The type of person who uses work as an escape and also a way to keep self-esteem. Even though she seems to have lost what made her job so rewarding, I bet she still works the same amount of hours.
To me one of the things she was escaping from was a certain type of man. She'd been hurt and I guess she also had hurt men before. She was careful to stay away from men that wanted commitment. She worked a schedule where commitment was hard. She seems to have a love/hate relationship with men. She reminds me of the line from the Bob Seger song, "I used her, she used me neither one cared". She used work as a way to protect herself from love and she also picked men who weren't interested in long term relationships with her.
Some happy things happened in this book, but overall what a sad book. The dual tragedies of Jay's life: losing his health and the woman of his dreams. Allison seemed to be stuck in neutral in the part of her life we know of her. It seems that's what she wanted or at least was comfortable with. But that's sad as well. Bill tried to do the right thing most of the time. Although one uninformed decision led to his whole adventure. Did he become a better person because of what he went through? Like life this book gave us more questions than answers.
themusicaddict
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