Queen of the Underworld: A Novel
Written by Gail Godwin
Narrated by Stephanie Zimbalist
3/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
In the summer of 1959, as Castro clamps down on Cuba and its first wave of exiles flees to the States to wait out what they hope to be his short-lived reign, Emma Gant, fresh out of college, begins her career as a reporter. Her fierce ambition and belief in herself are set against the stories swirling around her, both at the newspaper office and in her downtown Miami hotel, which is filling up with refugees.
Emma's avid curiosity about life thrives amid the tropical charms and intrigues of Miami. While toiling at the news desk, she plans the fictional stories she will write in her spare time. She spends her nights getting to know the Cuban families in her hotel-and rendezvousing with her married lover, Paul Nightingale, owner of a private Miami Beach club.
As Emma experiences the historical events enveloping the city, she trains her perceptive eye on the people surrounding her: a newfound Cuban friend who joins the covert anti-Castro training brigade, a gambling racketeer who poses a grave threat to Paul, and a former madam, still in her twenties, who becomes both Emma's obsession and her alter ego. Emma's life, like a complicated dance that keeps sweeping her off her balance, is suddenly filled with divided loyalties, shady dealings, romantic and professional setbacks, and, throughout, her adamant determination to avoid "usurpation" by others and remain the protagonist of her own quest.
From the Hardcover edition.
Gail Godwin
Gail Godwin is a three-time National Book Award finalist and the bestselling author of twelve critically acclaimed novels, including Violet Clay, Father Melancholy's Daughter, Evensong, The Good Husband and Evenings at Five. She is also the author of The Making of a Writer, her journal in two volumes (ed. Rob Neufeld). She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Gail Godwin lives in Woodstock, New York. Visit her website at www.gailgodwin.com
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Reviews for Queen of the Underworld
37 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In this novel, set in Miami in the early 60s, just after Castro took power in Cuba, the characters are interesting, the writing good, and the plot minimalist. The protagonist, Emma Gant, is a young journalist, just moved to Miami, flirting with being a femme fatale, and at the same time, trying to be taken seriously by the old dogs at the newspaper. She develops a fascination for a local character, a woman who is now respectable but has a colorful past as a madam in a brothel.
The historical and regional detail is vivid, but I had a hard time getting under Emma’s skin. This period in Miami is presented as a crossroads in her life, but I never really felt it had changed her much. She seems just as cool and removed at the end of the novel as she did in the beginning. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Young Emma Gant, a new graduate from J school, has recently received her first assignment, working as the Miami Star’s newest reporter. This is her chance to break free from a small town existence, a controlling step father and to live her dream. Following an interesting train ride she arrives at her hotel, escorted by her aunt Tess. The surroundings are not what she expected, not even a view of the beach. Disappointed yet pleased with its potential, the Julia Tuttle becomes her sanctuary, her comfort, her shield from the harshness of the real world. Emma is anticipating a phone call; it will be the voice of her married lover, Paul, coming to whisk her away. The owner of a resort where Emma worked last summer, he was her every heartbeat. The reunion will be sweet. Will they have a future or will fate change Emma’s perfect plans? With a mired of multi-faceted characters crossing her path Emma finds her first days on the job to be a roller coaster of events. Writing obits, avoiding the “glass cage” of the women’s section, visiting the papers “morgue”, interviews with tornado survivors and even an encounter with “The Queen of the Underworld” give her many challenges. It is the time of Cuban unrest and Fidel Castro’s usurping of land. The city has an influx of immigrants from varied walks of life, mingled with local color, from aristocratic know-it-alls, to young madams to mafia warnings; each seems a potential threat to her developing “Emma-ness”. Feeling diminished by the experience of other reporters, Emma goes the extra mile to make her mark. Can she carve a niche out for herself? Will she live up to “Lucifer’s” expectations or will she be cast off, banished, to a small town office? The entire book takes place over a period of about 2 weeks and it is filled with Emma’s constant thoughts and imaginings. To truly understand and appreciate the story to the fullest, one should have lived in that era or studied about it. By the way, don’t forget your Spanish-English dictionary.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It reminded me of myself at that age, probably because it's so autobiographical.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5What happened? I love Gail Godwin's books and I tried to get into this one with no success. I had to work to summon the interest to keep going once I'd finished the first few chapters. I kept turning the book over to be certain that Gail Godwin had written it. I am sadly disappointed in this novel that was much anticipated by me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A disappointment from one of my favorite authors. Right through to the last page, it felt like she was setting up a story that never took off. A young woman who, in the first pages, has just graduated from the journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, takes a job at the Miami Star (in part because the 40+-year-old married man with thom she began an affair when she worked for him the previous summer), and a room in a hotel in 1959 occupied mostly by Cuban exiles as they flee Castro's rise to power. I suppose I could chalk this up as another failed novel about the Cuban Revolution, though that story is secondary to the primary one, whatever it is, perhaps the story of a young woman defining herself personally & professionally.