Farewell to the Sea

Published in 1987, Farewell to the Sea is the third book in Reinaldo Arenas' Pentagonia which critics have often argued as his best. Set on a Cuban beach immediately following the revolution, a disenchanted poet mourns for the new suppression while his wife longs for the connectivity that she can no longer find. Arenas' concrete descriptions of the ocean are among the best found in all of literature, and the subtleties with which he describes the... more

Published in 1987, Farewell to the Sea is the third book in Reinaldo Arenas' Pentagonia which critics have often argued as his best. Set on a Cuban beach immediately following the revolution, a disenchanted poet mourns for the new suppression while his wife longs for the connectivity that she can no longer find. Arenas' concrete descriptions of the ocean are among the best found in all of literature, and the subtleties with which he describes the new Cuba are revelatory. less