Find Me in Havana: A Novel

Estelita Rodriguez rose from singing in nightclubs in Cuba to becoming one of the Latina stars of 1950s Hollywood. She lived a glamorous and dramatic life, going through four husbands before her death aged thirty-seven. Throughout all this, she only had one child, Nina, who years after her mother’s death would speak with Serena Burdick about their complicated relationship. Out of that conversation would come Find Me in Havana, a novel that weaves together the voices of mother and daughter into a tender narrative, painting a picture of how one woman’s fight to live the American dream cannot be just about that woman but must involve all those around her.

Even though it is a story full of high drama, Find Me in Havana is always tinged by the fact that it’s a remembrance. It is occasionally slow but always beautiful, feeling elegiac even during the first chapters. I was fascinated by both women and found myself sinking into their voices, falling into their lives, and trying to see their relationship from both sides. Serena Burdick did a wonderful job of capturing a time long past and telling a story that at once embraces a whole time and pinpoints one particular relationship.