An explorer's whereabouts keeps a queen in waiting; a faith healer's illegal radio broadcasts give hope to an oppressed people; a president's offer of ice cream surprises a prostitute expecting to cooperate fully - the three short fictions gathered in The Great Exception build into a vision of Cuba that is black-humored, brutal, and beautiful. Written prior to the publication of Rachel Kushner's first acclaimed novel Telex From Cuba , these stories, like Roberto Bolano's Antwerp , burst forth with the genesis of her fictional universe as though fired from a cannon. From the mythical title story, to the ominous "Debouchment" - originally published in her too short- lived journal Soft Targets - to the sexy and noirish "Strange Case of Rachel K," this is Kushner saddling up for a journey into the wilds of the modern novel.