FICTION

THE LONELY CROSSING OF JUAN CABRERA by J. Joaquin Fraxedas (St. Martin’s Press: $18.95; 176 pp.). Given the fanaticism generally attributed to the Cuban exile community in Florida, it’s easy to assume that any refugee determined to describe a fictional escape from the Castro regime will turn out thinly disguised propaganda. Good news: J. Joaquin Fraxedas’ “The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera” is a real novel, compelling and well-written if acutely underdeveloped. Fraxedas, an Orlando attorney who fled Cuba with his family in 1960, doesn’t say exactly why physics professor Juan Cabrera decides to leave his homeland, but we know what he is willing to suffer: Setting out on an inner-tube raft with two companions, Juan endures gunfire, a hurricane, a shark attack and endless exposure to the elements. The novel is not a tale of adventure, however: Fraxedas intertwines his almost cold-blooded description of the Caribbean passage with the stories of Carmen, a recent Cuban refugee and Juan’s only living relative, and Alberto, a much older, guilt-ridden exile who spends his free time piloting a plane in search of later, less fortunate refugees. “The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera” does have its freighted, partisan moments--having arrived in Miami and made peace with the deaths that occurred en route, Juan can “remove the massive crust of deceit that he had built around himself over the years”--but it isn’t a tract, either, Fraxedas having the good sense to focus on people rather than politics. The novel, significantly, is being published simultaneously in Spanish, an infrequent event in the book world.