The July One Woman Book Club pick was another book that sent me down a historical rabbit hole once I finished reading it. I had to know how much of the book was real, who the main characters might be based on, and more background information about a place that I honestly have never known much about.
The Price of Paradise is a historical romance featuring a pair of star-crossed lovers. It is set in Havana, Cuba, before, during, and after the revolution. It's the type of book that meanders -- honestly, I wondered if Patricio and Gloria would ever get a happy ending.
While the romance is the overarching main plot of the book, there is much more happening. The big focus is the El Encanto department store. We get to see it in its heyday before the revolution and watch its decline and ultimate fiery demise after Castro takes control. Another focus is the friendship between Patricio, El Grescas, and Guzman and each of their life successes. And finally, it is a fictionalized account of the grip the mafia had on the country and its people.
To avoid spoilers, skip to the end of this post.
***Spoilers***
Patricio emigrates from Asturias to Cuba after the Spanish Civil War to escape a life in the mines. He meets and becomes lifelong friends with El Grescas and Guzman, working odd jobs to pay the rent. His main source of employment initially is as a shoe shiner; he's not very good but enjoys the work. A near fatal run-in with mobster Cesar Valdes ends that endeavor. Eventually, he gets an entry-level job at El Encanto, the largest department store in Cuba, and that's where he meets Gloria, the love of his life and the wife of Cesar Valdes.
Gloria met Cesar when she was 13 and he was 26. Still, he pursues her relentlessly. When her father doesn't immediately agree to Cesar's 'request' to marry her, Cesar has the family candy shop destroyed. Gloria's father dies shortly after, and her mother goes into a catatonic state from which she never recovers. In an effort to save what's left of her family, Gloria sacrifices herself at the marriage altar. From the outside, her life looks enviable: she has a prominent, wealthy husband, an opulent mansion full of obedient staff, and spends her days doing (almost) anything she pleases. But Gloria's life is lived on a leash and lacks true happiness outside of her young daughter. Then, she meets Patricio.
Thanks to his charming people skills, Patricio quickly moves up the ranks of the El Encanto, going from a cannonball (runner) to supervisor. Patricio and Gloria develop a relationship that they hide behind their interactions at the store but are rarely ever alone thanks to Gloria's ever-present sister-in-law/chaperone.
Patricio has interactions with several celebrities, including Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra. His interaction with Sinatra is the most notable. The singer comes to El Encanto for a new suit to wear for his performance at the Calypso, Cesar's nightclub. When one of Patricio's underlings maliciously stains Sinatra's custom-made shoes, Patricio promises to have them cleaned and hand-delivered before the show. He delivers on his promise, then lands in a dangerous situation involving Cesar and two of his club workers.
Shortly after, Gloria's sister-in-law threatens to tell Cesar about her affair with Patricio. In order to keep him safe, Gloria cuts ties with Patricio who eventually marries one of his El Encanto coworkers (who has been in love with him forever) and moves them to Spain. Years later, after his wife is arrested for anti-Franco activity, he moves them back to Cuba and returns to work at El Encanto where he is reunited with Gloria and learns she has had his son.
Eventually, Cesar finds out and conspires to blow up El Encanto with Patricio trapped inside. Gloria manages to escape and save Patricio, and in a twist of fate, Cesar is killed by his own daughter. Believing Gloria to be dead, Patricio takes the blame for Cesar's death and goes on the run. He eventually ends up in Miami, where he spends most of the rest of his life.
At the end of his life, Patricio has moved back to Spain where a chance encounter with a perfect stranger finally has him in the right place at the right time. The book ends with Patricio reunited with Gloria, who did not die in the El Encanto fire like he believed, as well as his son and grandchildren. It took a lifetime, but they finally get their happy ending.
***End Spoilers***
Star-crossed lovers, indeed. This book was a whole lot of "wrong place, wrong time" where Gloria and Patricio were concerned. As I mentioned at the start of this post, I was beginning to doubt there would be a happy ending for these two characters...and if I'm being honest, the "happy ending" is pretty bittersweet.
While Patricio and Gloria were the focus of this book, I enjoyed all the side characters woven into the plot, particularly Patricio's two friends. I was delighted when the author wrapped up their storylines, as well as Gloria's sister-in-law's, instead of leaving me to wonder what had happened with them.
This book is packed with so much history, and just like I did with my Fawkes review earlier this year, I did a bit of research to determine what was fact, what was fiction, and what fell somewhere in the middle. Here's what I discovered.
While the book does feature real mafia members, most notably Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, Gloria's husband, Cesar Valdez, is fictional. It's possible that Cesar was based on another mobster (Santo Trafficante maybe?), but I could find nothing to support that theory. His nightclub, the Calypso, was also fictional, but the Tropicana Club still exists today.
The El Encanto department store was real. Built in 1888 by to Asturians (the country from whence Patricio emigrated), it was the largest department store in Cuba. In 1961, two bombs were set off near the main entrance by Carlos Gonzalez. He got the C4 from a CIA agent who had infiltrated the country. The store did burn down, and a female employee died of smoke inhalation. Just like in the book, the former site of the store was turned into a park named after her. In the book, the bombs were set off by one of Patricio's coworkers and his son, both of whom are envious of Patricio's status with the store.
I found myself most fascinated by Patricio's encounters with Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra, both of whom frequently visited Cuba before and after they were married. He helps Gardner pick out a lipstick, who in turn invites Patricio to her hotel room. Patricio, loyal to Gloria, enlists El Grescas to go instead. It's unclear if this specific trip actually happened, but I did find information about Gardner having a row with Castro's mistress and Castro setting her up with one of his aides. Sinatra's ties to the mob were well known; his trip was likely based on the singer's real visit to Cuba in 1947 when he delivered a suitcase full of money to Luciano.
Despite inspiring me to learn more about the subjects broached within, I'm not yet sure if The Price of Paradise will be on my best books of the year list. There was a lot of historical filler, which was certainly interesting but didn't feel relevant to the main plot other than to fill in the gaps when Gloria and Patricio were not together. There were several points throughout the book in which I felt frustrated because the story didn't feel as if it were moving forward so much as stagnating. Yet, I will admit that that stagnation was on par with the development of the characters, or lack thereof, during those moments.
As I was reading, I felt like the focus was supposed to be on Patricio and Gloria's doomed romance, but so much of the book was not about their relationship at all but rather the things that were happening outside of it. That said, the revolution didn't feel as prominent as I would have expected it to be; it was almost as if it wasn't happening at all - just background noise. I'm not sure if the author made an assumption that her readers would already have the background knowledge needed to inherently understand the history being made, or if it was intentionally made to fade into the background because of how profound Patricio and Gloria's love was supposed to be. Either way, the near non-presence of the revolution missed the mark for me.
This review is confusing even for me! Did I enjoy the book? Yes. Would I recommend it to others? I'm not sure. Maybe. It got me thinking and exploring and generating my own questions, so I can't deny it was worth the read.
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