Our House in the Last World by Oscar Hijuelos

First published in 1983; published by Grand Central Publishing on April 9, 2024

Our House in the Last World is the story of an immigrant family that struggles to find its identity in America. The story of the Santinio family begins with Mercedes Sorrea. Her father was a poet but he made a living in the timber business in Cuba after emigrating from Spain. Mercedes had a good life until her father misjudged the reliability of Cuban politicians and suffered a financial downfall.

In 1937, while working as a ticket seller in a movie theater in Holguin, Mercedes meets Alejo Santinio. He woos her and, over the objections of his possessive sister Buita, marries her. Alejo’s sister Margarita is married to a cigar salesman in New York. She convinced Alejo to move to America.

Mercedes views the relocation as a chance to get away from Buita. Margarita has a baby (Ki-ki) and Mercedes soon has one of her own (Horacio). Unfortunately for Mercedes, Buita travels to New York when her husband’s band is booked to perform at a club. Buita once again makes Mercedes’ life miserable — a recurring theme in the story.

Although the plot is eventful — it covers almost four decades in the family’s life — the story is character driven. Alejo is a large, affable man with an ability to charm women that he will never lose. He works in a hotel kitchen. He dreams of owning a small store but he lacks the courage or drive to abandon the security of a union job. His willingness to work for low wages assures that he will never be fired, despite drinking on the job with his Cuban co-workers and stealing frozen steaks for his family.

Alejo is a product of his culture — a believer in the supremacy of men and of their entitlement to force their wives to submit to their will — but, despite his futile efforts to win the affection of his sons, he is only comfortable while drinking with his Cuban friends or seducing Cuban women. When Castro comes into power, he is pro-Castro until he becomes anti-Castro, but he’s happy to agree with any political sentiment expressed by a friend over a glass of whiskey.

Horacio is embarrassed by his father and escapes to a more promising life by joining the military. Horacio’s younger brother Hector contracts a serious illness while visiting Cuba with his parents. Mercedes treats Hector as an invalid from that point forward. As he grows up, Hector always feels “as if he were in costume, his true nature unknown to others and perhaps even to himself. He was part ‘Pop,’ part Mercedes; part Cuban, part American — all wrapped tightly inside a skin which he sometimes could not move.” The childless Buita’s scheming to lure Hector away from his mother never ends, and her residence in Miami — a cleaner, more Cuban-friendly city than New York, where she lives in an air-conditioned house with a pool — might assure that she prevails.

Mercedes has justifiable grievances about Alejo’s unwillingness to find a better job, his drinking and violence, and Buita’s constant criticism, but she’s allowed her grievances to overtake her personality. She is defined by her anger and fits of hysteria but — again, perhaps because she is a product of her culture — she would rather complain about Alejo than leave him.

Many novels about dysfunctional families never distinguish themselves from soap operas, but Our House in the Last World offers insights into why families might become dysfunctional. Alcohol is an obvious factor, but meddling by relatives, the difficulty of adjusting to a new life, and the clash of cultural values all play disruptive roles in the Santinio family. There are no monsters in the family. Alejo has been taught to control his wife and sons with violence but he restrains himself and looks for ways to express his love of his sons. Mercedes doesn’t mean to be a bad mother, but she does not have the tools to overcome her helplessness. She instead develops the kind of self-pitying personality that exhausts people. Horacio understands that Buita has poisoned Hector against his mother but he can do little to overcome his younger brother’s resentments.

The novel’s final section is a bit strange, as characters converse with ghosts and debate the reality of their memories and perceptions. One character exists briefly as an orchid. Too much attention is paid to dreams for my reality-based taste. As Oscar Hijuelos’ first novel, Our House in the Last World doesn’t quite have the reach or depth of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, but it explores similar themes. The book is a valuable contribution to the literature of the immigrant experience of American life.

This edition features an introduction by Junot Díaz.

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