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Title: United States of Banana

Author: Giannina Braschi

Narrator: Adriana Sananes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-21-12

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Giannina Braschi explores the cultural and political journey of nearly 50 million Hispanic Americans living in the United States in this explosive new work of fiction, her first written originally in English. United States of Banana takes place at the Statue of Liberty in post-9/11 New York City, where Hamlet, Zarathustra, and Giannina are on a quest to free the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo. Segismundo has been imprisoned for more than one hundred years, hidden away by his father, the king of the United States of Banana, for the crime of having been born. But when the king remarries, he frees his son, and for the sake of reconciliation, makes Puerto Rico the fifty-first state and grants American passports to all Latin American citizens. This staggering show of benevolence rocks the global community, causing an unexpected power shift with far-reaching implications. In a world struggling to realign itself in favor of liberty, United States of Banana is a force to be reckoned with in literature, art, and politics.

Members Reviews:

United States of Banana

Giannina Braschiâs United States of Banana puts genre in a blender and pours it with seamless liquidity into a novel of exceptional innovation. Set in post-9/11 New York, the book follows Hamlet, Zarathustra, and Giannina as they set out to free Puerto Rican captive Segismundo from the dungeon of the Statue of Liberty where he has been imprisoned by the king of the United States of Banana for one hundred years. The king remarries, releases Segismundo, and as a conciliatory gesture, offers passports to all Latin American citizens. An act of benevolence which upends the global power paradigm and reverberates through the international community with destabilizing effects.

United States of Banana is a hybrid work, mixing post-modern fiction, play format, sociopolitical commentary, and stretches of prose with an evocative carousel of language and philosophical ruminations. It is an English language and literature loverâs dream! Cliché is (or should be) the bain of every writer. In Braschiâs hands cliché becomes critique which repeats and accretes with such intensity that it acquires depth and sinister implications greatly in excess of its daily use. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off catapults the reader into stinging indictments of capitalism and its injurious effects on well â everybody.

ââhome is in the head â (but the head is cut off) â and the nest is full of banking forms and Easter eggs with coins inside. Beheaded chickens, how do you breed chickens with their heads cut off? By teaching them to bankrupt creativity.â

Braschi plays clever havoc with the language around Puerto Ricoâs status as a protectorate (de facto colony) of the United States. The statuses are referred to as Wishy, Wishy-Washy, and Washy, independence, protectorate, and statehood respectively. She engages with the question in many ways, but arguably the most unique approach comes from dialogue sequences in play format. My favorite conversation is between Cuba, The Statue of Liberty, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and the United States of Banana during a meeting at the United Nations.