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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 in 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.

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Library Journal Review

The premise of this allegorical novel by Puerto Rican author Braschi (Yo-Yo Boing!; Empire of Dreams) is bizarre but intriguing: the author and two famous fictional characters-Giannina, Hamlet, and Zarathustra-attempt to free Puerto Rican Segismundo from the Statue of Liberty, where he has been imprisoned for more than 100 years. His father, the king of the United States of Banana, imprisoned him there for the crime of being born, and it is his father who frees him and awards statehood to Puerto Rico. The plot is secondary, however; the novel's main purpose is political, with plenty of reflections on the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, on Puerto Rico's awkward position as an American territory, and on personal desire and individual liberty. VERDICT The book's wordplay is amusing, and anyone who loves Shakespeare's play will enjoy hearing what Hamlet really thinks about his life. But the long monologs, meandering philosophizing, and lack of dramatic momentum require a very patient reader. Recommended for fans of philosophical fiction such as Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra.-Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.