Title: Cruz Gets Some Serious Religious Matters Wrong
Product review: I was looking forward to reading HAVANA BAY because Havana, the musics and the many religions of Cuba matter a great deal to me and my friends.I was shocked and disappointed that not only once, but several times, it is announced in HAVANA BAY that the Abakua religion is from the Congo region of Africa, when even the most elementary book on African Diaspora religions will inform you correctly that the Abakua come from the Calabar region of what we now know as Cameroon, close to present-day Nigeria. Cruz also wrote about the religions as if they were some sort of cheap Hollywood horror venture; nor, despite putting so much of this in the novel did it actually bear upon the plot.This is not the best book that Cruz has written. It reads too much as though the author was plugging in his research to fit his plot template, rather than having the plot emerge from something he knew well, and respected, if not loved.
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