I enjoyed listening to this one, however there were a lot of characters and time jumps that made this tough to follow.

Pretty solid.

I do think that for some readers the amount of characters will be "too much", but I personally really enjoyed it. It made the story seem full.

The ending leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied.


3.5 stars rounded up.

I wasn't really in the brain space for this one when I picked it up, so I didn't really get much out of it. I may come back to it when I'm in a different mood, as the premise sounded really great!

I found this book enjoyable and absorbing. Garcia does an excellent job creating characters the reader cares about. I did not read Dreaming in Cuban before reading this. I am wondering if there is some backstory I missed that might have augmented my reading experience. In talking with fellow readers, they strongly suggest reading (or re-reading) it before picking this one up.

It had been so long since I had read Dreaming in Cuban that for me, this novel was read as if it was a stand alone story. This may have affected my enjoyment of it because I found it hard to follow. I'm not sure how much of an overlap there is or what relevant aspects of the family I should have retained, but on its own, I found Vanishing Maps to be okay but not riveting.

There are so many books in this genre, yet Garcia managed to write a stand out. I laughed, I cried, and I cared about every member of this family, flaws and all. I highly recommend everyone read this book.

✨ Review ✨ Vanishing Maps by Cristina García

I read this WITHOUT realizing that it's a follow up book to Dreaming in Cuban (which I clearly hadn't read yet). That said, it was still an incredible book, and while reading Dreaming in Cuban first would have enriched my read probably, I still got so much out of this.

Vanishing Maps explores the Cuban diaspora through three generations of a Cuban family -- with a special focus on this third generation which is spread through Germany, Russia, and the U.S. (Miami and L.A.). It feels like García has crafted a web of family members made up of a series of one-way tickets as the characters have moved about.

There's something so incredible about the range of the character's identities and their connection to their cubanidad across this book -- from the family's matriarch's obsession with El Líder to the younger generation's contested relationships with Cuba and their elders -- we see such a range. My favorite character was Ivanito -- a part-time translator and adjunct professor and part-time drag queen. I'm not sure I've ever used the word zeitgeist but it seems appropriate here to describe what García has captured.

This definitely won't be a book for everyone -- there are a lot of characters, there's not necessarily a neat resolution, and within, chaos reigns. I found it such an incredible work of art that made me think about diaspora -- its traumas and its joys -- in new ways.

...off to go read Dreaming in Cuban!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: literary fiction, historical fiction with touches of magical realism
Setting: Cuba, Miami, LA, Berlin, Russia, etc.
Pub Date: July 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ complicated family webs with lots of POV
⭕️ narratives of immigration and diaspora
⭕️ Cuba / Miami / Soviet / Eastern Europe topics

Thanks to Knopf and #netgalley for an advanced copies of this book!

Another beautiful novel by Cristina aa Garcia.Her novel Dreaming in Cuban was a fantastic read.Vanishing Maps is another multilayered novel full of family relationships drama and also hysterically funny.Another novel I will be recommending.#netgalley #vanishingmaps.

AHHHHHH!
I'm so thankful to PRH Audio, Knopf, Netgalley, and Cristina Garcia for granting me advanced audio, digital, and physical access to this sweet gem of book that held emotional weight that twisted into my with a sharp knife.

Books like this are why I read!

I was transported by Cristina García's novel about multiple generations and branches of the del Pino family, in Cuba, Miami, L.A, Berlin, and Moscow. We are presented with, among other characters: the ailing, ageing matriarch; a vengeful and possibly murderous ghost, my favourite character (although she’s quite abominable); and a very cool and rather unworldly drag queen, my second-favourite character. There are lovers, family fights, and a delightful little boy. There’s a great deal of pain, as there always is in families. All of this is held together by strong, vividly portrayed women.

I hesitate to use the cliche, but this is a book that delights in magical realism. The aforementioned ghost is fully realised as a member of the family. Fidel Castro is present too, with his beard and cigar. All of the dark moments of the novel are perfectly balanced out with laugh-out-loud ridiculousness, and each character is given enough space to work through their life issues (except, perhaps, for the little boy, who comes to the story late).

An altogether enjoyable and wonderful novel, that caused me to completely forget where I was while I was immersed in it, and that I couldn’t put down. I’m grateful to Cristina García for a very satisfying ending, too, which, for a while, I wasn’t sure would come about.

Thank you to Knopf and to NetGalley for the ARC.

VANISHING MAPS had a lot of promise - a story of complicated multi-generational family dynamics made more complex by emigration and political divides over the years since the cuban revolution pushed some family members to leave cuba for the US, europe and russia.

but unfortunately i found it greatly hard to follow, the constantly shifting POVs a disservice to the flow of this novel. it was impossible to remember who was who even with the family tree, so the characters were difficult to emotionally invest in. most of the text is dry exposition, and the magical realism elements took away from the character development for me. the prose had moments of shine but overall was only serviceable. maybe if i had read garcia's first book, i would've gotten more from this?

So beautifully written and an exciting read. I’m from a Cuban family and reading this family’s complex story rings very very close to reality. I devoured this book and loved it from start to finish. Cristina Garcia is a great author and I cannot wait to read what she has next. She’s an auto buy author for me. Thank you so much Cristina Garcia, NetGalley and Knopf for this arc.

Eleven years ago, Christina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban was released. It's a book I love for its blend of honesty, humor, and unexpectedness. It follows the lives of members of a Cuban family. Some supported, and still support, the revolution. Others have left for the U.S. to build new lives. They form a sort of sampler of the Cuban experience from beginning in the mid-20th Century.The fabric Garcia weaves with the threads of their lives makes for a engaging reading experience and offers a broad range of viewpoints on life in Cuba and in the US and of the relationship between these two nations..

Now, Garcia has written a follow-up to that novel—Vanishing Maps. It includes the characters from Dreaming in Cuban and introduces new ones. The family is now even more widely dispersed: Cuba, the US, Russia, Germany, Spain. The characters have also developed wonderfully. Ivanito, a teenager who left Cuba (by default as much as deliberately) in the first volume is now popular drag performer in Berlin. Pilar, an artist who as a teenager created a controversial mural for her mother's bakery, is now living in California and has a young son, Azul. Lourdes, Pilar's right-wing mother, has become spokesperson for a young Cuban boy who has been found floating in an inner-tube off the Florida coast, the only survivor of a disastrous attempt to travel by boat from Cuba to the US (think Élian González).

It was an utter delight to spend time with these characters again. You'll enjoy Vanishing Maps, whether or not you've read Dreaming in Cuban, but I would suggest you read both in publication order. This family's story is complex and you should give yourself every opportunity to share it in detail.

I received a free electronic copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

This novel follows multiple family members from different generations with roots in Communist Cuba after many of them have moved to other parts of the world. It's a vibrant look into a culture and worldview I was unfamiliar with, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading and thinking about the dynamics at play between different personalities, political ideologies, sexualities, languages, etc.

The characters were dynamic and interesting. That said, I didn't feel like the story as a whole had a cohesive narrative. Each character changed a bit from beginning to end, but there didn't feel like there was a definitive point.

Overall, it was still an interesting read, and I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys character-driven stories vs. more plot-focused options.