Novelists write fiction, of course, and Martin Cruz Smith writes exceptional novels, often featuring the brooding Moscow investigator Arkady Renko. In Havana Bay, published in 1999, Smith sends Renko to Cuba to poke around after the apparent death of a Russian colleague. I picked the book up recently and plunged in to take a break from a couple of intensive projects. Smith’s depiction of Havana and other Cuban places squares with my experience — five relatively short visits over 15 years — and also expands my knowledge of many details, practices, and aspects of Cuban life. “It’s complicated” is how I put it in an article a few years ago, after hearing that explanation over and over. Smith’s descriptions of the Havana cityscape as well as the interior mindscape of his Cuban and Russian characters are terrific.
Smith works in a brief Hemingway reference via an American expatriate in Havana, who claims ownership of a vehicle once owned by Hemingway, a 1957 Chrysler Imperial convertible.
Well, that’s nice, but it might not be actually true. I don’t know whether Smith was taking liberties or subtly trying to suggest this particular character was a liar (I haven’t quite finished reading). Hemingway owned several cars while living about 20 years at his hilltop estate outside Havana. A Buick. A Plymouth. And, notably, a 1955 Chrysler New Yorker convertible, blue with orange interior, according to various accounts, including a documentary film about the car’s restoration. Well, who really cares? I’ve never been much of a car guy.
