Review: A Lady in Havana by Ashley Morgan

A torrid love affair, a pretty young wife, and a country on the brink of revolution…Peel away the facade of glitz and glamor of 1950s Cuba and you have A Lady in Havana, Ashley Morgan’s explosive work of women’s fiction.

Beautiful Dorothy “Dimple” Duncan, heads to Havana with her husband, Dallis, intending to lend support – as a good wife in the Fifties does – to his risky venture to sell school buses to President Batista, Cuba’s sitting president. Their go-between in Cuba is the very handsome and wealthy Latin attorney, Roberto Montero.

Roberto makes no secret of the fact that he’s attracted to Dorothy and when Dallis has to go to Illinois in order to secure the required bribe money to lock down the deal, Dorothy stays behind and they inevitably become lovers. However, Dorothy is shocked to soon learn that her charming lover is the integral link between Cuba’s despotic president and Fidel Castro, the guerrilla leader plotting to overthrow him.

Cutting to the future, Hallie Duncan is on a mission since her elderly mother, Dorothy’s, recent stroke. She’s determined to record the events of her mother’s former life in Cuba so she can turn it into a best-selling novel. Her divorce from her gambling husband has left her with a small settlement, and has ultimately led her into Rich Rodino’s arms, an uber successful Tampa attorney, who intends on making Hallie his wife. However, publishing her book is just as important to Hallie as becoming Rich’s wife. What she doesn’t count on is her very married writing professor complicating matters by declaring his feelings for her.

A Lady in Havana alternates between Dorothy’s story in the fifties and Hallie’s story set in present day and while it doesn’t initially appear that there’s much substance to Hallie – other than as a supporting character to her mother’s story – it quickly becomes apparent that both women, despite the decades that separate them, are living parallel lives. Young wife, Dorothy, restricted by the social mores of the Fifties, and Hallie, a young divorcee, both end up involved with charismatic men who ultimately betray them in the worst possible way, leaving them to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

The story is clearly well-researched with a solid narrative and dialogue that’s peppered with charming affectations, as Dorothy recounts the shocking events of her former life. Morgan writes with a convincing familiarity that gives readers an intimate entree to a more glamorous era gone by – at the core of which lies an imminent threat of danger, relegating Dorothy’s affair with Roberto secondary in importance.

Dorothy herself is elevated from being “just a young housewife” to becoming a crucial part of the U.S.’s plan to invade Cuba, giving the story excitement and import. Her interactions, albeit brief, with the likes of Lana Turner, Hemingway, Meyer Lansky and Castro himself add another layer of historical authenticity to the unfolding drama.

An immensely enjoyable read, A Lady in Havana will equally please readers of both contemporary and historical fiction.