YOCANDRA IN THE PARADISE OF NADA

Yocandra In The Paradise Of Nada ($21.95; May 1, 1997; 160 pp.; 1- 55970-362-8): A zestful portrayal of a young woman revolutionary in today's Cuba adroitly juxtaposes its questing heroine's hopeful energies to the desiccated sensibilities of the annoyingly generic men (including the Traitor and the Nihilist, among others) whom she expects to become both lovers and mentors. ValdÇs further contrasts the sterility of a self-consciously macho Marxist society with the almost frightening fertility of the land and, by implication, the women who surround them. A sexually forthright and amusing contemporary Candide (or, if you will, Candy).