Rembrandt in Havana

Living free is more than a choice, it is a daily struggle. Against society, the community, the powers that be, both the moral and the eyes of others. Heretics, this mural by Leonardo Padura, honors those trying to chart their own course, even shocking, even to suffer, even leave his skin. The novel by Cuban author is clearly made up of three distinct parts, corresponding to different historical periods, linked, besides the theme mentioned above, is a painting by Rembrandt, the strange destiny. The relationship between the different segments is undoubtedly farfetched but many will be forgiven Padura some great passages, including his entire first part that tells, among others, the odyssey of the ship SS St. Louis who recalls more tragic than the Exodus.
If Heretics appears immediately dense and bushy, sometimes drowned in great detail, the story of the cursed ship and the enigma surrounding the Rembrandt painting immediately capture the attention, especially as the character of Mario Conde , ex-cop and a symbol of a population surviving somehow in Castro's Cuba with weapons for resourcefulness, humor, friendship, and a few bottles of rum, is an endearing man, especially for his weaknesses very human, including a lack of courage. Hyphenation is very clear with the second story, which takes us from the side of Amsterdam in Rembrandt's studio where a young Jew, against all odds, will try to live their passion: painting, alongside the great master . It's not that his fate is uninteresting, far from it, but Padura buggers too much in the middle of the novel and, it must be confessed, Conde missing so much. The third movement of this symphony we finally brings romance in Cuba today for a disenchanted portrait of Havana through the "tribe" emos, a youth returned without any illusions. It would take too long to describe the contour of the book is then thriller only to return to the red wire of Rembrandt, the final genesis (yes), catapulting us on the last pages in Poland of the seventeenth century at a time when Jews are massacred without further ado. Phew.
Heretics is a bit "stodgy" Excuse printing, and suffers from information overload and multiple considerations. Now, it is undeniable that the book of breath and a holy ambition despite an exploded central plot that holds the puzzle whose pieces can be glued so, um, a little casual. Overall, a good book but too long.