Foreword to the 2004 USA edition
There are very few things in this world that leave me speechless. I'm what
you might call chatty, verbally embued, a blackbelt in the art of babble.
Hey, it's a living. A chuckle or two to light the literary darkness, just
don't ask me to make change for a twenty.
But when faced with that mug on Lynette Chiang's bookcover, The Handsomest
Man In Cuba, I shut my mouth, pausing mid-bite over my morning cereal to pay
homage. Here stood a gent clearly able to embrace the sublime and absurd in
this world with, shall we say, a certain amount of flair.
Here stood an original.
Hard as it is to avoid doing sometimes, we're told repeatedly not to judge
books by their covers, lest the plot police whisk us away to padded rooms
brimming with thousand page tomes containing no pictures, translated from
German, with all of the covers torn off. I've never been snatched up by
these
death to pop culture squads, but I'm told it's not pretty. Even so, I
decided
to pass judgment, live dangerously and crack open Lynette's cycling
escapades around Cuba. I've been burned so many times by awful journals
passing themselves off as books. Still, who could ignore the come on of
that colorful gent?
Here's the thing; it turns out to be the first two wheeled travel adventure
I've read in far too long that is more than just a pretty face. Lynette
writes herself into a more colorful character than the posterboy out front
and the rainbow of folks found inside each chapter. No easy feat considering
that Lynette's Cuba is chalked full of lively individuals full of hopes,
schemes and a seemingly endless supply of goodwill and hospitality.
By turns, introspective, charming and thoughtful, The Handsomest Man In Cuba
packs in what so many travel adventures discard; the emotional landscape of
a country and the interior map of the person exploring it. Upon finishing
this book you may want to secure the next circuitous flight to what was once
called the playground of the tropics or avoid that island empire like head
lice, but one thing you'll feel compelled to do... follow Lynette's next
adventure wherever she decides to travel.
Cheers,
Joe Kurmaskie
The Metal Cowboy
Joe is the award winning author of bestselling story collections including
Metal Cowboy and Riding Outside The Lines. In addition to his one man show
Metal Cowboy Mayhem and his syndicated columns, Joe contributes to Men's
Journal, Backpacker, The LA Times, Bicycling and The Oregonian.