Title: A tangled web
Product review: Havana Bay is a fine book. As in Smith's other novels of Russian life there is darkness, ambiguity and shadow. Much of the novel takes place in the dark, among ruins, with the central character wearing a heavy black overcoat even in the tropical heat. As Arkady Renko slides in and out of ruined buildings and the murky pollution of Havana Bay so too this novel evokes the destruction of greed and the loneliness and depravity of the soul.That this most Russian atmosphere is set in Havana, Cuba in the bright glare of the tropical sun is Martin Cruz Smith's statement of the enduring and universal nature of human depravity.But the heaviness of the novel is offset by the brilliance of detail, the writer's descriptions of Havana and its inhabitants, and of the sociology of life under the reign of Castro. The seduction of the small love story and the unravelling of motives, actions and consequences make this a most worthwhile investment of a reader's time and imagination.
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