Which Cuban poet wrote the novel 'Paradiso'?

José Lezama Lima wrote the novel “Paradiso.” The Cuban poet’s only novel published during his lifetime appeared in 1966 after nearly seventeen years of work.

Written in an elaborate, highly poetic style, “Paradiso” follows José Cemí from childhood into his university years in Havana. Cemí’s development as a poet, his family history, intellectual formation, and sexuality all echo aspects of Lezama Lima’s own life, though the book is not simply an autobiography.

The novel blends narrative, poetry, philosophical reflection, and literary allusion. Its dense, baroque prose made it difficult for some readers, but it also established “Paradiso” as a major work of twentieth-century Spanish-language literature. Julio Cortázar later helped prepare a corrected Mexican edition after criticizing numerous errors in the original Cuban printing.

A common mix-up is to associate “Paradiso” with other major Cuban writers, especially Alejo Carpentier or Guillermo Cabrera Infante. They were important contemporaries, but the novel belongs to Lezama Lima. His unfinished posthumous novel “Oppiano Licario” continued the world of several “Paradiso” characters.