Critical Praise
"Menendez focuses on the regrets and loneliness of Cuban exiles, offering a nuanced view of people who are, she says, often stereotyped and pigeonholed. 'But one book is too small a thing to change people's ideas,' she says."
——Jen Clarson, Book Magazine
"The narrative of the long Cuban odyssey unfolds, resulting in an exile both angry and poignant with longing. By the time she reaches the last story, Menéndez is conjuring up Eugene O'Neill-like drama. . . . [She makes] the Cuban exile ordeal come alive and pluck the chord of universal feeling. A pointed rendering of the human need to idealize what was in order to live with what is."
——Kirkus Reviews
"Menendez's alluring stories grant us a writer of delicacy, with a talent for seeing cultural and political shifts through the eyes of those experiencing them."
——Ronald Christ, The New Mexican
"A raucous, heartfelt debut. In a series of interrelated stories, Menéndez delves into the conflicted heart of a community whose divisions are legendary. Deft, talented and hilarious, Menéndez is a splendid discovery."
——Junot Díaz
"A tender and occasionally sharp-fanged portrait of Miami's Cuban-exile community . . . Brave and funny and true."
——Ben Ehrenreich, L.A. Weekly
"[The characters'] struggles and nostalgia for a lost homeland are recounted with sensual and wistful poignancy in these short stories."
——The Bookseller (U.K.)
"In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, [Menéndez's] debut collection of short stories, proves her a generous and masterful writer, her stories rich in metaphor, wisdom and delicious subtlety."
——Samantha Puckett, St. Petersburg Times
"The first work of a young writer with a bright future."
——Jay Goldin, Fort Worth Morning Star-Telegram
"A mesmerizing portrait of Miami's Cuban exiles."
——Ruth Henrich, Salon
"Superb . . . The community that emerges in these pages is one of humor, acute grief, and gifted storytelling."
——Fionn Meade, The Seattle Times
"If you don't know what it means to be a Cuban in exile, Ana Menéndez will explain it to you, with humor and with lovely descriptions of a summer storm in Havana, of a baseball game on a scalding hot day, or of how the shade of a banyan tree might remind an old man of home."
——Anne Stephenson, The Arizona Republic
"Powerful . . . stories that not only convey the bittersweet mood of exile but also give us a wonderful gallery of idiosyncratic characters whose lives overlap to create a sense of shared history, shared losses."
——Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Menéndez offers a lilting narrative that sways soulfully between past and present, longing and regret, joy and tragedy."
——Donna Rifkind, The Baltimore Sun
"Achingly wise."
——Richard Eder, The New York Times Book Review
"Menéndez taps into [a] wellspring of broken promises and unfulfilled desires and gives us a wryly sentimental peek at the different shadings of the Cuban-American experience. . . . With this collection, she joins the ranks of such Latino minimalists as Sandra Cisneros and Junot Díaz, who have proven that you don't need to give in to what Donald Justice once called 'the American mania for epic.'"
——Ariel Gonzalez, The Miami Herald
