From Cross Hill – 3rd Edition

Author: Richard M. Grove

Title: From Cross Hill: Views of My Cuba – 3rd Edition

ISBN: 978-1-897475-71-3 = 9781897475713

Trade Paperback: 74 pages – 6 X 9 

Suggested Retail (Paperback): $9.95

Genre: Memoir, Poetry and Photography, Canadian

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Local Store: Contact your local bookstore. They will order the book for you – direct them to Hidden Brook Press with the title and ISBN.

Free Reviewer Copy: If you are going to publish a review in a Newspaper or Magazine we will send you a free copy. If you are going to publish a review on your Website or Blog we can offer you a copy at 50% discount.

Blurbs:

64 Words

From Cross Hill: Views of My Cuba by Richard Marvin Grove is a lovely little travel memoir that will take you places in Cuba where few tourists will ever go. This book includes social commentary on Cuba in the form of letters home, metaphoric true-life stories and well-crafted poems about people and places of Cuba. See Cuba through the eyes of a literary traveller.

332 Words

From Cross Hill: Views of My Cuba by Richard Marvin Grove is a travel memoir in prose and poetry. This book includes social commentary on Cuba in the form of letters home, metaphors and true life stories that will make you love Cuba and at the same time empathise with the political and economic plight that Cubans live with every day. It is clear that Grove loves Cuba and it generous-hearted people but it is clear when reading the micro-prose “Blue Cattle Green Cattle” that the system ruffles his feathers. It is clear from reading “Being in the Garden” that Grove loves the slow pace life of living / being, in Cuba as a writer.

The short story “Compañeros”, a metaphoric dialogue between a pig and a chicken, takes the reader to the Orwellian concept that either one of them will be on the menu tomorrow. Hearing the lady of the farm wringing the dinner bell sends shivers up the spine of the pig and the chicken. Grove will tell you in the story “The Frozen Bus Ride From Havana” that you don’t want to ride for 13 hours standing in a brand new bus delivered from China, especially when the driver does not know how to turn down the air conditioner. Freezing in Cuba was not on this writers mind when he started the journey.

Some of this travel memoir is in the form of poems, “Blown By the Breeze of Hope” and “The Phantom Hand” are powerful metaphors for the realities of Cuban life. Not everything in the book is politically metaphorical in nature though there is always an undercurrent of metaphor even in the poems “Birds of Different Varieties” and “In a Wave of Black They Shattered”. Be sure to read “Makeshift Curlers” if you want to understand the true nature of Cuban ingenuity. Over all this little book is a gem that will tell you the true ins and outs of Cuba and life for the working stiff.

What was said about some of his other books:

AboutTrapped In Paradise

I just finished Trapped in Paradise. What a fun ride. Lots of good stuff I’m still chewing on. A delicious gem of a book. I laughed but I didn’t cry. Although your vivid description of Cuban poverty and potholes reminded me of how the Japanese tsunami made me feel. Gut wrenching.

Gene

AboutTrapped In Paradise

The reader will learn, laugh, think and meditate every mile with them. You will enjoy story after story mixed with a few poems about Cuba on the travels with this “un-put-down-able memoir”. There is a phrase used by the author in the middle of the book, “don’t bite off more than you can chew”. With this book I only had to bite once and I was trapped into the paradise of travelling with Tai – or you know him as Richard M. Grove. I enjoyed every page, every mile.

Wency Rosales,
CCLA Ambassador
Cuban author, entertainer

AboutThe Family Reunion

I just finished The Family Reunion. What an uplifting and warm piece of literature. I could not put it down. I simply devoured it. Thanks so much.

Gene

AboutThe Family Reunion

I enjoyed The Family Reunion with its cast of unforgettable characters. You have a real knack for making characters come alive, and I had to laugh at some of their quirks. I couldn’t help recognizing one or two as folks who turn up at our own extended family reunions every August!

Peggy Dymond Leavey
author of Laura Secord, Mary Pickford,
and nine novels for young readers.