The Doorman: A Novel - Softcover

Arenas, Reinaldo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080213405X ISBN 13: 9780802134059

Publisher: Grove Press, 1994

Synopsis

Reinaldo Arenas is the most highly acclaimed writer of Cuba’s post-revolutionary generation. The Doorman, his first work set in the United States, breaks new ground with the extraordinary and tragic story of Juan, a young Cuban refugee who becomes a doorman at a luxury apartment building in Manhattan. Oddly alienated from the tenants, Juan finds himself being seduced by their pets–a bear, a rattlesnake, an orangutan, goldfish, cats, dogs–who speak to him, determined to recruit him to their cause: a revolt against humans and human society, and a mass flight to liberty. Fantastic, satirical, dizzyingly inventive, The Doorman is a bittersweet parable about freedom and community, told with a profound sense of humanity.

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

From Kirkus Reviews

An affecting parable of a modern knight-errant's search for the ``true door to happiness,'' and the first story by the late Cuban writer and exile Arenas (The Palace of the White Skunks, 1990, etc.) to be set in the US. Young Juan, a refugee from Cuba, is the doorman of a Manhattan apartment house--home to a disappointed and eclectic group of men and women, and to their even more unhappy pets. There are, among others: an aging leftist who keeps a polar bear to serve her (when she isn't in Cuba buying desperate young men with cheap trinkets); a suicidal young woman, beloved by Juan, whose pet is a rattlesnake; an impotent and aging lover-boy whose pet orangutan helps him out on dates; the nearly identical gay couple Oscar One and Two, with their terrified rabbit and fierce bulldog; the Supreme Pastor of the Church of Love through Constant Contact and his menagerie; and the millionaire family that owns the remarkable dog Cleopatra. As Juan opens the door for them and their pets, he always tries to please, hoping that they may know of the door he is looking for. His helpfulness is increasingly abused, and poor Juan despairs. But Cleopatra and the other animals have been watching him, and they appoint him their leader. Thought now to be mad, Juan is consigned to a psychiatric ward, but the animals rescue him and together set off across the country to California, where they find the doors to the lands and waters of their dreams. But Juan--the ``only hope'' and ``great weapon'' of outsiders and the persecuted--can find no door. The parallels to Arenas's own life are obvious, but this richly imagined story--often witty despite the tragic undertones- -transcends such limits as it celebrates the defender of ideals, Juan the doorman. A fine memorial. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080213405X
• ISBN 13: 9780802134059
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 204