by Albert Batista Morris (Author)
The Fabulous Million Dollar Sandbar traces the decline and fall of Cuba's most powerful family, the Batistas, with equal measures of humor and heartbreak. Split between two worlds - his American-born father's life of showbiz glamour, Marilyn Monroe, and the fateful murder of Cuban musician, Chano Pozo; and his mother's world, ruled by the whims of cafe society - Al Batista grows up with the expectations of being "a normal boy." Set against the backdrop of Miami Beach in the1960s, he dreams of becoming a writer, of escaping the step-dad who persecutes him for being different, and of hitchhiking to New York to "live large." His fanciful imagination and growing paranoia compels him to betray the handsome big brother that he hero-worships, Anthony. Paranoia is a theme in the novel, holding up to view a mid-century American culture of conformity and hysteria that shapes and threatens to destroy two growing boys.