The Last Train to Key West
Chanel Cleeton
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The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton tells the story of the interrelated lives of three women: Helen Berner, Mirta Perez, and Elizabeth Preston. The chapters alternate between the main female characters and flesh out the plot in much greater detail. World Word I, the Great Depression, the historic 1935 Labor Day hurricane, the veteran camps in Florida, the railroad project, and the so-called Bonus Army weigh on Cleeton’s fictional narrative; she adeptly weaves together themes of love, romance, death, survival, history, and gender. Cleeton’s characters are changed in the course of their lives. The veterans who came back from the war are not the same people who left home. After getting married, Helen becomes someone else, and Mirta believes that she is not Mirta Perez anymore. Throughout the novel, the author sheds light on the reasons why her characters have changed. The novel starts with Helen’s story. Helen is a Key West native who is pregnant in her ninth year of marriage to Tom Berner. What is striking in Helen’s marital relationship is the power-making and boundary-making violence that she receives at the hands of her husband. Tom, a man Helen once loved, is now more like a jailer to her. She is in a constant state of struggle over deciding to leave her husband or remain in the life she is expected to live since “a woman’s place is with her husband” (Cleeton 81). On several occasions, Helen agrees to do what she is supposed to do. When she does what her husband wants, she at least has a “passable day” (2). |
Marriage is explored in another way in Mirta’s life. The chapters about Mirta offer an intersection of conventional marriage, Cuban history, and society’s expectations for a good wife. Mirta is from Cuba, and has recently married Anthony Cordero in an arranged marriage. For Mirta and the third character, Elizabeth, marriage is the only possible way to save their broken families. Mirta has married Anthony because of his connections and his friendship with Batista. The newlywed couple arrive in Key West for their honeymoon. She describes her marriage not as real, but rather businesslike. She technically does not know her husband, yet is supposed to have a normal and acceptable life with him. She tries to follow her mother’s advice on multiple levels and please her husband or keep him satisfied to make her marriage more bearable. She is taught to be pliant and to subordinate her needs to those of others.
The third character is Elizabeth. Elizabeth has found her way to Key West from New York, not only in search of her half-brother, but also running away from the judging stares of high society. Once a rich girl, she now experiences another form of life as her father and brother became stockbrokers. She once was “hemmed in by society’s rules and expectations” (105) and cared more about her good name, but now she is more rebellious. After she and her mother face many difficulties, she chooses to get engaged to Frank Morgan, as it is “what needed to be done” (140). In this marriage, she is “bought and paid for” (142). Like Mirta, who sees herself as a good society wife, Elizabeth is an expensive, pretty façade to be displayed in her community.
The novel gradually reveals how the characters impact one another’s lives. The hurricane contributes significantly to the creation of solidarity among the characters. With history serving as an indispensable element of her storytelling, Cleeton offers readers enough information to make them eager to conduct more research on their own. In my view, this is the strongest aspect of Cleeton’s latest novel, which engages the reader in a complex and less known, yet crucial part of history.
The third character is Elizabeth. Elizabeth has found her way to Key West from New York, not only in search of her half-brother, but also running away from the judging stares of high society. Once a rich girl, she now experiences another form of life as her father and brother became stockbrokers. She once was “hemmed in by society’s rules and expectations” (105) and cared more about her good name, but now she is more rebellious. After she and her mother face many difficulties, she chooses to get engaged to Frank Morgan, as it is “what needed to be done” (140). In this marriage, she is “bought and paid for” (142). Like Mirta, who sees herself as a good society wife, Elizabeth is an expensive, pretty façade to be displayed in her community.
The novel gradually reveals how the characters impact one another’s lives. The hurricane contributes significantly to the creation of solidarity among the characters. With history serving as an indispensable element of her storytelling, Cleeton offers readers enough information to make them eager to conduct more research on their own. In my view, this is the strongest aspect of Cleeton’s latest novel, which engages the reader in a complex and less known, yet crucial part of history.
Chanel Cleeton is originally from Florida and has grown up listening to the stories of her family that left Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. She holds a master's degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics & Political Science.
The Last Train to Key West is a publication by Pinguin Random House and can be purchased online. Click here to purchase.
The Last Train to Key West is a publication by Pinguin Random House and can be purchased online. Click here to purchase.
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