In Review / At last: Blood of the Dragon Tree

By C.S. GILBERT

A good number of literary locals, this writer included, have been holding our collective breath waiting for a sequel to Michael Ritchie’s screamingly wonderful Cayo Hueso/Cuba Libre – and after six years, here it is. Hot off the SeaStory Press is Blood of the Dragon Tree: The Saga of Congo Julia.

Blood of the Dragon Tree is an historical novel, beginning in 1838 in Africa, in a village in the Congo. (There is one important flashback and Chapter One is set in Key West’s Bahama Village in about 1920.) Congo Julia was in 1838 a young woman named Elegua Naladi (meaning Star Child), daughter of the King.  Slavers come, decimate the village and take her, with some of her people and hundreds more, enslaved, to Cuba. There, mostly on Cuban soil but moving toward the book’s end to mid-19th century, then 21st century Key West, this adventure unfolds.

The richly embellished, deeply researched tale is history, mystery, magic and more—including theology and romance. Most interesting to the uninitiated, I suspect, is the real skinny on Santaria, the polytheistic, magical Afro-Cuban religion around which much of the story revolves, and which is commonly mistaken for voodoo or satanic witchcraft, which it is most definitely not.

Ritchie’s much praised first novel was a biting satire of then-contemporary Key West. Little of this critical spirit remains, although Cayo Hueso’s main character, journalist Mac McKinney, returns as the central character here; it is through him, helped by Caridad Cabrerra, his lover and a santera, a holy woman or priestess of Santaria, that Julia tells her tale. A couple of minor characters previously skewered return, just for fun, but satire is the furthest thing from the thematic richness and depth of this story. The author’s six years of research were well spent.

Many a literary vessel founders on the rocks of disparate points of view; Ritchie’s omniscient observer skillfully and seamlessly sails through.

If there were anything to be wished for, it is illustrative. This book is hardbound and the dramatic dust jacket art credited to Isaac John; it is really quite stunning. It would have been nice, however, to have end papers depicting maps of the Cuban (or even African) settings. Maybe in the next edition.

Congo Julia is Book One of The Dragon Tree Trilogy, publisher Sheri Lohr reported. Ritchie’s first novel, Caya Hueso/Cuba Libre is to the trilogy as The Hobbit is to Lord of the Rings, she said, without a tinge of irony and only a bit of excusable overstatement. It is due out next year.

We will be holding our breath again.

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