THE WONDERS OF MACHU PICCHU, 7
To say Jennine Capó Crucet’s new novel is a Miami book is an understatement. It’s like suggesting drivers behave erratically on I-95 or that there’s nowhere to park in Brickell. That the rib rolls are good at Flanigan’s or that the wait is a bit long at Apocalypse BBQ in Kendall. That croquetas are popular, and yes, it rains a bit on summer afternoons.
Because “Say Hello to My Little Friend” (Simon & Schuster) isn’t just a Miami book.
It’s the
Miami book, a blistering, hilarious, tragic novel that is simultaneously absurd and painfully real, an inspired mash-up of
“Scarface” and “MobyDick.” Crucet pokes fun at notions of authenticity and high versus low art and celebrates the idiosyncrasies of Miami even as she casts an ominous eye to the future and hones in on the obvious: The water is rising as fast as the rent, and this particular way of life in this particular city is not going to last forever.
Crucet, who grew up in a Cuban-American family in Hialeah, will kick off her book tour on publication day, March 5, at Books & Books in Coral Gables. Yes, that date is 3-05, and of course it was chosen deliberately: This is, as we mentioned, the most Miami of books.
Crucet understands that the cultural touchstones in “Say
Hello to My Little Friend” will not be familiar to readers outside Miami. Most won’t know about the spray-painted hats from the youth fair, why the Bird Road La Carreta is the best La Carreta or why a tapas bar might be tucked away inside a gas station.
But adding these elements to the story builds a more complete portrait of a city too many people get wrong, she says.
“I can tell you I radically centered a Miami resident as the reader of this book, and if that comes at a cost for readers who aren’t familiar with the city, that’s fine,” Crucet says from her home in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she moved during the pandemic. “That might be a controversial opinion. But we have so many books about New York and New York
City, and there are all these great details in them .... Ina time where we have an entire world of information at our fingertips, it’s fine for someone if they’re lost to pause or if they’re curious to go look something up.”
The novel follows the quest of Cuban-born Izzy (as in “Call me Ismael”) Reyes, a failed Pitbull impersonator who decides to model himself into a latter-day Tony Montana. After all, they both came to Miami on a boat, although Izzy is unclear on the details of his own journey, because he was just a kid. He left Cuba with his mother; she died; he grew up with his aunt. With lamentable lack of skill at anything besides posing