Julie's Review: Find Me In Havana

Author: Serena Burdick
Series: None
Publication Date:  January 12, 2021
Publisher: Park Row
Pages: 328
Obtained: Publisher
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Complicated mother-daughter relationship
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Summary: Cuba, 1936: When Estelita Rodriguez sings in a hazy Havana nightclub for the very first time, she is 9 years old. From then on, that spotlight of adoration - from Havana to New York’s Copacabana and then Hollywood - becomes the one true accomplishment no one can take from her. Not the 1933 Cuban Revolution that drove her family into poverty. Not the revolving door of husbands or the fickle world of film.Thirty years later, her young adult daughter, Nina, is blindsided by her mother’s mysterious death. Seeking answers, the grieving Nina navigates the troubling, opulent memories of their life together and discovers how much Estelita sacrificed to live the American dream on her own terms.Based on true events and exclusive interviews with Nina Lopez, Estelita’s daughter, Find Me in Havana weaves two unforgettable voices into one extraordinary story that explores the unbreakable bond between mother and child, and the ever-changing landscape of self-discovery. ~amazon.com

Review: I always love books that are told from different points of view and this one is different since it's told in letter format. The letters are between mother, Estelita and her daughter, Nina about certain points in their relationship. Nina's letters are looking for explanations while Estelita's are trying to explain why she did the things she did. Nina seeks answers that perhaps her mother can't give her and Estelita's letters are full of excuses about her actions. Their relationship is also complicated by the fact that Estelita's mother lives with them and is truly the one that looks after Nina. She's also the one managing Estelita's career to a certain degree and has always been the one to push her to leave Cuba and follow her talent to New York and eventually Hollywood. 

Things start to unravel for them when Nina's dad picks her up from boarding school and takes her back to Mexico to live with him. She doesn't really live with him but is instead stays in his house with a nanny while him and his current wife travel and stay at their beach house. She doesn't even get to know her other siblings while there but is shuttled to and from school. Estelita comes up with a plan to take Nina back to the US and it is quite the adventure for the two of them. While it bonds them in some ways, Nina realizes that she's always a ploy in her mom's publicity. It isn't until they go to Cuba that Nina starts to understand that some things in her mom's life weren't always in her control and that she tries to control the things within her reach. 

What Find Me in Havana does well is show the push and pull of a mother daughter relationship and how something you don't understand as child until you are older and perhaps a parent yourself. I thought both women were extremely complicated and communication with each other wasn't their strong suit. Perhaps if they had talked to each other, some of these misunderstandings wouldn't have been there. 

It also highlights strong female relationships throughtout the book. Either between Estelita and her mother, Nina and her grandmother, Nina and her Aunts/Cousin and Estelita and her sisters. This was a nice highlight of the books as well.

I had never heard of Estelita before this book, so of course I had to use Google. Definitely don't think she gets the recognition that she deserves.