United States of Banana, Giannina Braschi
United States of Banana, Giannina Braschi
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United States of Banana

Author: Giannina Braschi

Narrator: Adriana Sananes

Unabridged: 7 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/11/2012

Synopsis

Giannina Braschi explores the cultural and political journey of nearly 50 million Hispanic Americans living in the United States in this explosive new work of fiction, her first written in originally in English. United States of Banana takes place at the Statue of Liberty in post-9/11 New York City, where Hamlet, Zarathustra, and Giannina are on a quest to free the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo. Segismundo has been imprisoned for more than one hundred years, hidden away by his father, the king of the United States of Banana, for the crime of having been born. But when the king remarries, he frees his son, and for the sake of reconciliation, makes Puerto Rico the fifty-first state and grants American passports to all Latin American citizens. This staggering show of benevolence rocks the global community, causing an unexpected power shift with far-reaching implications. In a world struggling to realign itself in favor of liberty, United States of Banana is a force to be reckoned with in literature, art, and politics.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Literary

Giannina Braschi's originality is not only refreshing, but intellectually thrilling. "Original" is the first word that comes to mind upon reading United States of Banana. Then comes "profound" and soon upon it "revolutionary". Stylistically and structurally, this book is a hybrid of essays, short st......more

Goodreads review by Edward

Absolutely brilliant. Hilarious, intelligent, linguistically beautiful, and politically relevant. If you've any interest in Latin American/US politics, poetry, philosophy, then this is a book for you. Really impressed by this book, which begins as a series of monologues by the author, Hamlet, and Za......more

Goodreads review by TereG

United States of Banana is a big book about big ideas. Like other postmodern cross-genre literary works, this offers a dizzying array of avant-garde techniques but does so, in the words of the Latinx critic John Riofrio, in the service of “ trenchant critiques of social issues”. Braschi’s Hysterical......more

Goodreads review by K's Bognoter

A piece of postmodernist, political-literary mouth diarrhea featuring Zarathustra (in the #nietzschean gestalt), Shakespeare's Hamlet and his mother, Segismundo and his father, Socrates, the Statue of Liberty herself and many more… "United States of Banana" is full of humor and sharp satirical subtl......more

Goodreads review by John

I wanted to like this. I like the sentiments. I like the playfulness. I didn't like the book, however. I had to plow through it on a couple of trans-Pacific flights. There is some amazing imagery (statue of liberty's vagina and Hamlet, etc.), some very poignant lines and funny bits. I just could bar......more

Quotes

“Revolutionary in subject and form, United States of Banana is a beautifully written declaration of personal independence. Giannina Braschi’s take on U.S. relations with our southern neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean, most especially Puerto Rico, is an eye-opener. The ire and irony make for an explosive combination and a very exciting read.” —Barney Rosset, The Evergreen Review“The best work of art on the subject of September 11th that I have ever experienced.” —Mircea Cărtărescu, author of Nostalgia“Good poets write great poems. Great poets create a new language. Giannina Braschi is a brilliant artist who has invented a syntax that reveals how we think, suffer, and take delight in the twenty-first century. Though the tone can be playful, her work has deep roots in the subversive side of classical literature. The scale is epic.” —D.Nurkse, author of The Fall and The Border Kingdom

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