A Good Day to Die

Follows war-weary Jorge Ortega, the recently U.S.-appointed leader of a small band of Cuban revolutionaries who, in the wake of Fidel Castro's death, hopes to regain control of their homeland

Coltrane's ambitious, if compact, debut is a speculative military thriller set in Cuba in the months after Fidel Castro's death. Jorge Ortega, an American operative of Cuban descent, is dispatched by the "Company" to Santa Rosa, where he and a band of local rebels are to seize the radio station, synchronizing their attack with a massive landing of military forces. This is more a novel of conscience than confrontation, and subplots overwhelm the initial clarity of the mission. Ortega, whose martyred grandfather died during the Bay of Pigs fiasco, is disillusioned and emotionally scarred. He's been in combat in Honduras, Belize, Colombia, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Though he prefers "being on the right side," this time he is haunted by his previous assignment in El Salvador and the death of a woman named Catalina. He also battles stark memories of his father's suicide. The ragtag guerrillas, already a divisive, amateurish and jealousy-prone lot, are further split when Ortega has an affair with Gloria, a disfigured woman loved by one of the rebels. If this isn't complicated enough, Ortega does not trust his own superior, Forbes, and is uncertain if there is even going to be an invasion. It is possible that the rebels, severely outmanned and ill-equipped, are merely sacrificial decoys. Ortega, however, appears not to care whether he is on a suicide mission, be it military or emotional. Despite some distracting lexical lapses ("the smoke came into focus, roiling up oilily"), Coltrane's narrative styleAmore literary than Tom Clancy's, less so than Robert Stone'sAachieves its limited objectives. Ultimately, however, his attempt to transcend the military thriller genre with a literary interiority traps this narrative in a formidable category crisis.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Haunted by memories of dubious and failed missions, including one that resulted in the death of a woman he loved, Jorge Ortega wavers between cynicism and vulnerability in his latest mission: to lead a band of guerrillas in retaking Cuba following the death of Fidel Castro. Chosen partly because of his heritage (his grandfather was killed at the Bay of Pigs invasion), Ortega is granted grudging respect by a fragmented guerrilla group, despite their misgivings about his CIA affiliation. Ortega needs their trust if the mission is to have any chance to succeed. But he has his own doubts about the motivations behind the mission to seize a radio station. He is loathe to get involved in the group dynamics of the little band but falls into a relationship with Gloria, a beautiful but disfigured woman, who prefers Ortega's attentions to those of another member of the group. Coltrane's first novel renders tense emotions in a tale of a doomed mission and a search for redemption. Vanessa Bush