Average customer rating:
- Must read for Randy Wayne White fans
- Great adventure
- Fun, early White novel
- young author
- Randy Wayne White never disappoints!
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Cuban Death-Lift
Randy Wayne White
Manufacturer: Signet
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0451220862 |
Book Description
When Fidel Castro allows thousands of Cubans to depart for America in the Mariel Boatlift, he exports the worst criminals and undesirables of his country along with them. To monitor the situation, the CIA sends infiltrators to Cuba-where they vanish without a trace.
In desperation, the Agency turns to ex-Navy SEAL Dusky MacMorgan to go in and find out what happened.Amid the chaos and deception in Mariel's savage underworld, MacMorgan must keep on his toes and off the radar if he's going to discover the truth without disappearing himself.
Customer Reviews:
Must read for Randy Wayne White fans.......2007-09-10
Even though the names were different (author and hero) the background foundation for Doc Ford is unmistakable and fun to read. Can't wait to read "The Deadlier Sex" as the follow-up to this great begining for Randy (Striker) Wayne White. I also enjoyed White's present day introduction to this book.
Great adventure.......2007-08-23
White proves he has always had a knack for spinning a great story even when he was a relative beginner. Whether writing about Doc Ford or some other Travis McGee type hero his stories always entertain me.
Fun, early White novel.......2007-07-29
There are many ways to categorize fiction. One category I'd like to propose is "disposable" fiction. Disposable fiction is made up of those (relatively) cheap paperbacks filled with stories that are almost pure action; it tends to be brief (rarely more than 250 pages), simply written and usually targeted to a very specific demographic: Harlequin-style romances for women and adventure fiction for men. Many of the writers who produce disposable fiction are borderline hacks, churning out potboilers quickly and with little creativity; they often need to adhere to strict formulas and have little control over the direction of the stories.
Randy Wayne White started out his career as a disposable fiction writer. The difference is that White is a good writer, and even in his early books, his gifts shine through. His Dusky MacMorgan books will never be mistaken for great literature (as even he admits in his introduction), but they are entertaining.
In the third MacMorgan book, Cuban Death-Lift, Dusky is recruited by a federal agent buddy nicknamed Stormin' Norman (this was written, by the way, long before a real Stormin' Norman would come to prominence in the Gulf War of the early 1990s). Norm wants charter captain Dusky to transport a CIA agent to Cuba in the middle of the Mariel Boatlift.
The agent turns out to be beautiful Androsa Santarun, a Cuban-American charged with smuggling a double agent off the island. Two things are certain: there will be lots of killing occurring before the mission is done and Dusky and Androsa will end up in bed together. White knows exactly what his target audience (men) expects: sex and action. He actually has his own nickname for this type of fiction that I will leave to the reader to discover.
I read this book in just a couple of hours, which seems about right. Cuban Death-Lift is not exactly one of those books that needs months to finish. As with the first two books, this is a fun story, and it gives a good glimpse of the better Randy Wayne White that would develop later.
young author .......2007-07-22
This was a fast & furious romp through a very interesting time in our history. Randy was very young so some of the plot moves slow and other elements are a bit hurried. Still his attention to the facts and the twists of plot are brilliant albeit the characters are a tad shallow. A good read in a "potato chip" kind of way. Light, not a full meal, but you can't eat just one!
Randy Wayne White never disappoints!.......2007-05-14
Doc Ford is in fine form in this latest Randy Wayne White. Fans will happily find all their favorite people and places. This book reintroduces an old character, now dying and using Doc to finish his unfinished business. I love these books, I love Randy Wayne White's knowledge of these islands off the coast of Florida, the flora, fauna, and local color. You will not be disappointed in this one, which is exciting, violent and touching.
Book Description
"Have mercy on me, Lord, I am Cuban." In 1962, Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba -- exiled from his family, his country, and his own childhood by the revolution. The memories of Carlos's life in Havana, cut short when he was just eleven years old, are at the heart of this stunning, evocative, and unforgettable memoir.
Waiting for Snow in Havana is both an exorcism and an ode to a paradise lost. For the Cuba of Carlos's youth -- with its lizards and turquoise seas and sun-drenched siestas -- becomes an island of condemnation once a cigar-smoking guerrilla named Fidel Castro ousts President Batista on January 1, 1959. Suddenly the music in the streets sounds like gunfire. Christmas is made illegal, political dissent leads to imprisonment, and too many of Carlos's friends are leaving Cuba for a place as far away and unthinkable as the United States. Carlos will end up there, too, and fulfill his mother's dreams by becoming a modern American man -- even if his soul remains in the country he left behind.
Narrated with the urgency of a confession, Waiting for Snow in Havana is a eulogy for a native land and a loving testament to the collective spirit of Cubans everywhere.
Download Description
"In 1962, at the age of eleven, Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba, his parents left behind. His life until then is the subject of Waiting for Snow in Havana, a wry, heartbreaking, intoxicatingly beautiful memoir of growing up in a privileged Havana household -- and of being exiled from his own childhood by the Cuban revolution. That childhood, until his world changes, is as joyous and troubled as any other -- but with exotic differences. Lizards roam the house and grounds. Fights aren't waged with snowballs but with breadfruit. The rich are outlandishly rich, like the eight-year-old son of a sugar baron who has a real miniature race car, or the neighbor with a private animal garden, complete with tiger. All this is bathed in sunlight and shades of turquoise and tangerine: the island of Cuba, says one of the stern monks at Carlos's school, might have been the original Paradise -- and it is tempting to believe. His father is a municipal judge and an obsessive collector of art and antiques, convinced that in a past life he was Louis XVI and that his wife was Marie Antoinette. His mother looks to the future; conceived on a transatlantic liner bound for Cuba from Spain, she wants her children to be modern, which means embracing all things American. His older brother electrocutes lizards. Surrounded by eccentrics, in a home crammed with portraits of Jesus that speak to him in dreams and nightmares, Carlos searches for secret proofs of the existence of God. Narrated with the urgency of a confession, Waiting for Snow in Havana is an both an exorcism and an ode to a paradise lost. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times in our lives when we are certain we have died -- and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn. "
Customer Reviews:
Exhilarating and painful.......2007-09-27
I left Cuba -with my parents- at the age of eight in 1963. Although my exile experience was much less trumatic than Dr. Eiré's, his depiction of life in that place at that time, seen through the eyes of a child, awakened so many emotions, dormant in my conciousness for so many years! What some reviewers have deplored as aimless ramblings brings me as close as I will ever come to a long conversation with a lost childhood friend, with all the complicity of shared experiences. The familiar sights, the smells, the terrors, real and surreal -I still am both terrified and eerily fascinated by lizards, specially the Cuban anolí, which changes colors to match its surroundings, the magic all around me in those days, Catholic school, birthday parties, fear for your life, shameful mischief... I laughed harder than I had in years and also cried too real tears!
I visited Cuba about four years ago, to witness the death of a family member who meant very much to me during my childhood. Despite the tragic circumstances and the terrible destruction of my little town, I unexpectedly felt an overwhelming peace and sense of "home" which I would not have imagined until then, having left so young. I don't recall having slept better in many years before or since. I discovered that there is a part of our being that does not travel. I left it in Placetas when I went away and there it was, intact, waiting for me. And there it stayed again.
I thank Dr. Eiré with all my heart for having brought me as close as it can be to that profusely bleeding chunk of who I am, which will never be in my present address.
Another Cuban boy.
Hightly recommended.......2007-09-19
This book was Great! I believe every person who struggled to get to the US to find freedom would enjoy this book. Eventhough I came much later in life, i believe his accounts really hit home with what i remember.
Lots of hype, but still a pretty good read.......2007-07-18
Wonderful delivery of characters throughout the book, but Eire's relentless weaving of timelines was distracting. It was almost incoherent or redundant at times, rambling from one period to another. I also had a little difficulty understanding the "wistful" invocation of philosophical and spiritual jargon throughout the book.
Despite the distractions, a good read for the first few hundred pages. Probably could have dropped a hundred easily.
Getting to know a Pedro Pan.......2007-06-25
During my career I have worked with and developed close friendships with several Cuban Americans, including two "Pedro Pans" - one of whom is currently a US Ambassador to an important European country. I could never quite imagine what life might have been like for them as boys in Cuba and how their lives were turned upside down. Their resilience has been an inspiration.
Eire's book, mentioned to me by a former high school English teacher, answers many of my questions far better than I could have hoped. It is a literary masterpiece that provides anthropological insights about the life of the privileged under Batista. Remarkably Eire does not whitewash this era - he makes it clear that the sons of Batista, of his chief torturer, and of upper class professionals enjoyed privileges unavailable to most. He admits to serial shop-lifting as a boy and the materialism that made birthday parties stressful events. But it came to a sudden end when Castro took power and banned Christmas, persecuted his opponents, and caused families to send their children abroad.
Over the weekend I had a conversation with someone whose family fled Tehran after the ouster of the Shah. Somehow her stories were evocative of Eire describing Cuba under Batista.
I am without words.......2007-06-20
Nothing I can say can do this book -- and Dr. Eire -- justice. I read this book on a (Cuban-American) friend's recommendation. I knew very little about Cuba or Castro. I have never been so moved by a book in my life. This is a must-read for everyone on the planet.
Book Description
Authentic Cuban recipes offer a mixture of Spanish, Indian, African, Chinese, and Portuguese cuisine, from appetizers like Green Plantain Chips, to such entrees as Roast Pork Creole, to tropical rum-based drinks and desserts.
Filled with reminiscences and evocative halftone photos of Randelman's childhood in pre-Castro Cuba, this book presents more than 200 traditional recipes for Cuban dishes, a cuisine that lusciously combines Spanish, Indian, African, Chinese, and Portuguese influences.
Customer Reviews:
Great receipes.......2007-08-16
This cookbook comes the closest to the real recipes that I have tasted, except they love to use oregano and lots of green pepper which should be ignored. Red peppers should be substituted and cumin is the favorite spice of the cubans. Once the recipes are doctored the food is outstanding. My favorites are vaca frita, oxtails, black beans (remember, do not use the oregano or the green pepper), the garbanzo bean dish with chorizo. Also remember that the type of chorizo you use will influence the dish and their are several different kinds. The Colombian type is excellent or I would stick to Goya's brand. The Colorado Bean Soup is awesome, especially if you puree it - though it is labor intensive. Remember that many of these recipes can be cooked in a pressure cooker, which is how many real cuban households make these meat dishes quickly and they come out the most tender. It would have been great if they included that method in this book but you can guesstamate the times. This works particularly well with the oxtails. You must remember also that each cuban family makes the dishes their way, so that is why you have to adjust the ingredients.
Disappointed Cuban.......2007-08-15
Just as my review for "Cuban Chicks Can Cook" this book has a whole was also a let down.
Wonderful Cookbook .......2007-07-20
This is truly a wonderful cookbook. Having never really experienced the Cuban cuisine, I was very excited when the book arrived. My wife and I have made four of the recipes: Sandwich Cubano, Picadillo (Cuban Beef Hash), Tambor de Picadillo (Beef Hash and Mashed Potatoes) and Congri Oriental (Red Beans and Rice) and the results were absolutely incredible.
Great Recipes.......2007-07-17
Being of P.Rican descent our cuisine is similar to that of Cuba. I purchased the book a few years ago and loved the recipes. I also purchased another copy recently for my son for Father's Day. If you're familar with cuban food, you'll probably make a few adjustments to some of the recipes. But all in all the recipes are very good. As far as the stories in the book, I do agree with another reviewer. With as much poverty as there is in Cuba, the authors do seem to have a nauseauting effect with all "They Were, and Had." Makes me wonder if these recipes are truly their own or the folks that worked in their home. But if you can get past their "Uppity" stories, I recommend the book. I also recommend: Daisy Cooks!: Latin Flavors That Will Rock Your World
cookbook that tells great stories.......2007-05-15
I love this book and have given it to many friends and family members over the years.
The book is easy to follow, the recipes are excellent and the stories associated with each chapter are interesting.
Book Description
Cuba's number 2 official today — Commander Juan Almeida — was secretly working with JFK in November 1963 to overthrow Fidel. The US government recently revealed Almeida's work for JFK, allowing the updated trade paperback of Ultimate Sacrifice to tell the full story for the first time (complete with new photos and documents).
The authors obtained the story from almost two dozen associates of John and Robert Kennedy, starting in 1990 with JFK's Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Their accounts are supported by thousands of newly-released files at the National Archives.
Almeida's "palace coup" set for December 1, 1963, was to be backed up by US forces "invited" in by Commander Almeida, then Chief of the Cuban Army. However, three Mafia bosses being targeted by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy used several CIA assets to infiltrate the secret plot and murder JFK.
This resulted in cover-ups by officials like RFK and LBJ, to prevent the exposure of Almeida and a possible nuclear confrontation with the Soviets. The new edition explains why Almeida was not a double agent, why Fidel suspected Almeida's ally Che Guevara, and what Fidel did in 1990 when he finally found out about Almeida's work for JFK.
Customer Reviews:
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT HAPPENED.......2007-10-16
A clear, understandable recital of the facts. Well documented.
One of the best-if not the best,I've read on the subject.
There is a great deal of material, but can be digested.
Clear and precise in showing WHY and HOW things happened on Nov 22, 1963.
Too Many Unsubstantiated Facts Leading Nowhere.......2007-09-13
As with most books about the JFK Assassination, 'Ultimate Sacrifice' suffers from its own evangelism; having decided on a theory, the authors opt for proselytizing over objectivity. Authors Waldron and Hartmann start by taking themselves and their theory much too seriously, trying to convince the reader of the correctness of their conclusions by presenting a gigantic load of so called facts to overwhelm the reader. Most of these "facts", however, are far from substantiated, coming as they are from the usual secondary sources rather than original research, while ignoring much good evidence that detract from them.
There are way too many assumptions of unproven allegations in this book for me to take the authors' conclusions seriously, despite the new evidence they provide from some admirable original research to try to back them up. To take just a few examples:
1. The authors accept without question that Oswald was an American agent before he went to Russia. They cite the usual suspicious, yet inconclusive evidence about this such as the 'phony' suicide attempt, Oswald seen with unsavory characters while in Japan, an alleged false defector program the US was supposed to have run, and just the general feeling that it seems to make sense. And yet, the authors completely ignore the much greater evidence opposed to this inference found in the well-researched chapters on Oswald's time in Russia in the Mailer biography, much of it coming from KGB sources who had been watching him constantly. Indeed, not one shred of spy-like behavior was made evident too them by their subject during his entire stay.
2. The authors believe Oswald did not take his Marxism seriously, but was only pretending to be a true believer as part of his cover. Were this true, Oswald must have been the best method actor of all time, never getting out of character, even with his wife and close friends. And oh yes, all those commie books in his room were `planted'. Amazing analysis!
3. The authors decide to accept with little question the interpretation of the ambiguous ballistic and medical data of the assassination that best fits their theory, namely that the fatal shot came from the Grassy Knoll, while discounting the Single Bullet theory. Once more they completely neglect the most scientific data available that counters this notion: the Barger Acoustic analysis done during the HSCA hearings. Nor do they cite the excellent analysis of the first shots in the Zapruder film done for the Frontline special on Oswald that clearly shows the flap of Connelly's collar being flipped up as the bullet -- the same bullet that emerged from Kennedy's throat -- passes through into his shoulder.
There is much more of this type of thing, too much so for me to find much value in what evidence the authors do present. I say this believing indeed that JFK was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy involving elements of Cosa Nostra and CIA. But the breadth of scope of their arguments is just too much for the lack of depth of the evidence they provide.
Do not mistake me, there is some value in this book. The research on the Tampa and Chicago threats is intriguing. The details on the CIA-Mafia assassination plots is both informative and believable. And the presentation of Ruby's ties to Organize crime is the most convincing and thorough I have seen. Unfortunately, when the authors try to cover all the mysterious associations of Johnny Roselli, the Mafia point man on the assassination, they mainly rely on a single secondary source, All American Mafioso by Charles Rappleye and Ed Becker while completely neglecting to cite the most curious close friendship he maintained with top CIA officer William K. Harvey, point man for Executive Action assassinations, until his death. The same tactic of using a very small number of JFK assassination books to back up their arguments is used to show the actions and meaningfull associations of the other mobsters involved in the conspiracy as well.
What is needed in the field of JFK assassination research is not more rehash of old and untested data to backup new conspiracy theories, but a well constructed analysis focused on manageable areas of the assassination using original research, including validating rather than blindly accepting evidence cited in previous works. At times Ultimate Sacrifice does attempt this, but far too seldom; and in the end, the books bites off more than it can chew and concludes very little.
Worth the time.......2007-08-16
I finished this book. Took awhile, but did it. Close to 900 pages. "We'll explain further in another chapter," or words to that effect were sprinkled throughout and wore thin, but explain they did. I've wondered, over the years, why RFK wasn't more aggressive about pursuing the truth and why he presented obstacles to Garrison's investigation, etc--and this book explains all that and more. The theories make sense, and the documentation is laid out nicely. And next to Bugliosi's bag of hot air and overwrought opinion, Ultimate Sacrifice looks even more important. I see it's now available in paperback, so the investment is halved. I'd say it surely deserves a spot on serious researchers' shelves.
The Mafia Did It: A Script and Play Written By CIA Productions Inc........2007-07-26
This is a difficult book for one to get his head around. Not only because the subject matter unfolds like a reverse Russian Doll - as each new puzzle is opened, a larger more interesting one with an even deeper subtext emerges -- but also because of the artful ambiguity with which the source documents (upon which the story is based) makes themselves an integral part of the plot itself.
This is my fourth attempt at writing a review, the first two having been rejected out of hand; and although the third was accepted; mercifully it too was later withdrawn after I tried to amend it several times. However, if this one is accepted, after my third reading of the book, I will not be amending it.
Prologue
As an integral whole, there is yet another way to view the JFK assassination story told here. Imagine it to be an intramural chess game between competing teams within the U.S. government. On one side are the Kennedy brothers, whose goal is C-Day and presumably a return of Cuba to a free and independent state. On the other side, are the anti-Kennedy forces which includes: the front line of the CIA, the mob, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the moneyed anti-Kennedy interests, primarily centered in Texas, and the state of Israel. The goal of side B is to checkmate the Kennedys, using C-Day as the cornerstone of the cover-up.
Each side has an array of forces and assets to deploy during the course of the game. And while the pawns, or minor pieces are interchangeable (and consist of Cuban exiles, low-level FBI and CIA operatives, Mafia, hired foreign assassins and their related patsies) the heavy artillery, or the pieces on the back rows of the respective sides, are not. The Kennedys have as their heavier artillery: the U.S. State Department, key executive advisors, various aspects of DOJ, and disparate elements of the intelligence community, including DIA. Importantly, neither the CIA nor the FBI are reliable major pieces for the Kennedy side, but the Kennedys seem to be unaware of this unreliability. Both sides also have at their discretion use of the press to either signal or conceal their respective side's motives and strategies.
The heavy artillery for the anti-JFK side include the middle echelon of the Mafia, namely, Santos Trafficante, Carlos Marcellos, John Roselli, and Sam Giancana; the upper hierarchy of the CIA itself, namely, Richard Helms, William Harvey, Desmond Fitzgerald, James Jesus Angleton, Colonel Sheffield Edwards, E. Howard Hunt, and David Atlee Phillips. At an even higher echelon of movers and shakers, (above the level of the government) for the anti-JFK side, one must also include the important but invisible hand of the Texas moneyed interest led by H.L. Hunt and Clint Murchison with LBJ as their number one lieutenant. And then there is the Don of dons of the mob, Meyer Lansky. Finally, there is Israeli concern over JFK's attempt to deny that nation nuclear status. Arguably it is these behind-the-scene controllers, from deep within the shadows of the CIA, the FBI, Texas moneyed interests and the Massad, that are the real drivers of the chess game.
The Rules of Engagement
Now, the rules-of-engagement is where this chess game really gets interesting. While for the most part the Kennedy's side remain in the dark about what the other side is up to, their own moves are not only transparent to their opponents, but are also subject to manipulation and secret rearrangement by them. The Kennedys personally, and their plans specifically, are repeatedly tripped-up and penetrated again and again. They are cajoled, blackmailed, and stalked repeatedly until they are both eventually killed. No other strategies or maneuvers are successful or even intended to be successful. Under such asymmetric rules of engagement, is there any wonder that it is not a foregone conclusion that the side with knowledge dominance is the one most likely to win the chess game?
The Script
The story of this book is about how the Kennedy brothers, after no less than some twelve different failures by the CIA/Mafia to depose Castro, beginning in 1959, decided to concoct and enlist its own White House plan. It consisted of using a Black Cuban Major, Jose Almeida, along with no less than the infamous Che Guevara himself as turncoats in an attempt to wrest Cuba away from the revolutionary-recently-turned Communist, Fidel Castro. If the newly released documents can be believed, under severe domestic pressure to do something before the 1964 election cycle, the Kennedys seem to have lost all their sense and their normally balanced decision-making abilities in favor of this cockamamie Hollywood version of returning Cuba to a democracy.
No matter who is credited with checkmating the Kennedys, and the authors of this script say that it was the Mafia "who done it," the script still has all the earmarks of "written by CIA Production Incorporated," stamped all over it. The spots on the CIA Leopard just never seem to change. While the integrity of these authors is not itself being questioned, it does seem that they have made among the most naïve of all possible interpretations of the newly released information. Their incessant - even embarrassingly droning and shrill attempt to "pin the tail of the donkey" onto the Mafia, "just does not wash." From the very beginning, it has a hollow ring to it.
By leaving out even a suggestion that others among the real heavy hitters on the anti-JFK side, may have been involved, may have played even a minor role, this rendition raises more questions than it answers: Suddenly and inextricably the Mafia becomes all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful, leading the white House, the FBI, and the CIA and the Kennedys around by their respective tails, while all of the other major players -- the disgruntled cabals within the CIA itself, J. Edgar Hoover and LBJ, the Moneyed Texas interests, Meyer Lansky and the Massad - all make only cameo appearances in this carefully stage-managed production.
While no one doubts the Mafia's ability to kill a President of the U.S., the author's shrill theme that the "Mafia did it," begins to wear thin early on, and is incongruent with what the Mafia could and could not be able to do to facilitate both the murder and the cover-up of the assassination plot. They certainly could not have implement the cover-up without confederates very, very high up in, and well above the government. Thus the big flaw in the book is that all of heavy-handed finger-pointing at the Mafia, including "C-Day itself," is but an elaborate smoke screen to give additional cover to the real architects of the assassination.
This book leaves no clues as to whom, or what group that might be.
Two stars
Very Interesting.......2007-06-27
I have read alot of books regarding JFK, and I have to say that this one was very interesting.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Just Needs A Musical CD !!!!
- Encore! We want more!
- A great read aloud for kids!
- Jude's Review of Jazz Man
- This Great Book! (More and More Honors!)
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This Jazz Man
Karen Ehrhardt
Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0152053077 |
Book Description
In this toe-tapping jazz tribute, the traditional "This Old Man" gets a swinging makeover, and some of the era's best musicians take center stage. The tuneful text and vibrant illustrations bop, slide, and shimmy across the page as Satchmo plays one, Bojangles plays two . . . right on down the line to Charles Mingus, who plays nine, plucking strings that sound "divine."
Easy on the ear and the eye, this playful introduction to nine jazz giants will teach children to count--and will give them every reason to get up and dance!
Includes a brief biography of each musician.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Just Needs A Musical CD !!!!.......2007-04-23
I love this book! My son is 20 months and loves this book the rhythm of the words, the numbers, the clapping the sounds of the instruments. What would be excellent if there was an auditory accompaniment to the book. A taping of someone reading the book who can demonstrate the sounds or even better a taping that included musical instruments playing.
I know a lot of people would LOVE to hear it as well and it would be an excellent teaching tool. Please forward this to the appropriate individuals and if possible keep me updated on the release date of the cd. Thank YOU for writing such an awesome, entertaining and needed book!
Encore! We want more!.......2007-03-22
Oooh, this book made me what to rap and tap and beedle-di-bop! Which is quite somethin', since I don't have a musical bone in my body!
This is a great book-the text jives off the page and the illustrations thimp dumple thump right along. What a great way to teach kids about jazz legends!
Hats off to Ehrdhardt and Roth for a beautiful book!
Encore!
A great read aloud for kids!.......2007-03-07
I am an elementary school media specialist for grades 1 - 5. I read this book to my first and second graders. By the third jazz man they were chanting along with me. By the fifth man we were all singing along with the familiar song tune. They loved the scat phrases and repeated them over and over. What a bonus that these men are actual jazz legends. I highly recommend this book for a great musical read.
Jude's Review of Jazz Man.......2007-01-21
I'm 3 and my Grandmother Helene reads this book to me. She said that my Doctor Beth gave it to me and my sister Scarlett and the author signed it. That made me smile.
I really like this book. My grandmother sings me it and i like music and instruments and can name the saxophone and trumpet and drums.I like the pictures of the conga drums.
I usually say, " read it again" when she's done and I can almost pick out all the numbers now too. Jude Stulb, Pueblo Colorado
This Great Book! (More and More Honors!) .......2006-10-05
Note: Since writing the review below, I've discovered that "This Jazz Man" has received three (and counting) prestigious honors in the last month or so: A Nick Jr. Book of the Year for Children, one of the N.Y. Public Libraries Top 100 books to Read to Kids, and one of a very few named by National Public Radio as a best children's book of the year!
February 2007 Update: This Jazz Man is on the cover of the February "Crickets" magazine! In addition, it was shortlisted as a top book by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, and is being used as a teaching tool for a Smithsonian Museum (yes, that Smithsonian!) exhibit.
If you've bought this book, you and I share a certain nose for kids' books; if you haven't, you'll discover a book that's snappy and swinging, fun and informative. My original review follows.
"Doodly-doodly-Doot-doot! Toot-Toot!"
That's Karen Ehrhardt's delightful take on a Dizzy Gillespie trumpet line, and like the rest of this sparkling first book, every note rings joyous and true. In a somewhat daring move, Ms. Ehrhardt airs out the musty English poem, "This Old Man," with jazz-infused lyrics, and distills the essence of nine jazz giants: Louis Armstrong, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Chano Pozo, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charles Mingus.
The improvisations in "This Jazz Man" are authentic and fun--the text is made for reading out loud! Listen to this evocation of Charlie Parker, for example:
This jazz man, he plays five,
He plays bebop, he plays jive,
With a Deedle-di-bop! Bebop!
Give the man a hand,
This jazz man blows with the band.
Within the 5-line format of the original song, the author conveys the sound and spirit of these artists, while keeping the tone light and understandable for her young, perhaps jazz-naive audience (about 3 to 7 years-old). Along with each Jazz Man's stanza are the sounds and rhythms of his performance -- depicted in text incorporated with each illustration. When drummer Art Blakey "plays solos with his sticks" and "beats with the band," the percussive sounds "Chikka-chee! Chikka-chee! Bubbuda-bubbuda-bubbuda-BOMP!" pulse over his vibrating cymbals. Following the `performance,' older readers (and adults) can learn more about Blakey -- his innovation of the "press roll" and his role in nurturing new talent -- in the book's afterward. Riffing on the customary introductions of band members at jazz gigs ("Playing 4, form Washington, D.C... Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington"), the book briefly spotlights the life of each Jazz Man.
Illustrator R. G. Roth complements Ehrhardt's narrative pictures with multi-media illustrations that are playfully retro yet fresh and child-friendly. Airy compositions help children see the relaxed, expansive pose of the smiling Louis Armstrong, the verve and rhythmic creativity of "Chano" Pozo (how many times have you seen him in a jazz book for kids?), the playful attack of Fats Waller, and the stature and majesty of Charles Mingus. Roth displays a repertoire of textures and soft, engaging colors, and makes subtle references to Birdland, the Newport Jazz Festival, and other venues along the edges of book's `stage. For the small fry, a cute and playfully elusive mouse plays hide and seek throughout the book. "This Jazz Man" has an exhilarating finale -- after each man plays (1 through 9), all of the jazz icons appear on stage together:
This jazz band, they play ten,
We beg them to play again,
With an "Encore, we want more!"
Give them all a hand"
These jazz men make one great band!
"This Jazz Man" gets it right, rhymes it tight, and entertains without misrepresenting. (To put this achievement in context, too many kids' "jazz" books really focus on the blues--usually the rural blues, seen through an awkward sentimentalism--or solely on dance. Sometimes they confuse eras, portraying any jazz singer as a combination of Bessie Smith, post-WWII hep cats, and 1950's beats, with a dash of oddly misplaced 1970's styles.)
"This Jazz Man" is a natural for school or library audiences, rambunctious group singing, the first efforts of beginning readers, or as a bedtime treat for toddlers. One doesn't need to know one lick about jazz to enjoy the musicality of the rhymes and the understated but compelling jazz portraits: They stand on their own. In addition, teachers can easily adapt "This Jazz Man" to language units, numbers and counting, music appreciation, art, solo and group singing. Older students may delve further into the lives and times of the musicians through Ehrhardt's rich yet compact biographical sketches in the afterward. (Offhand, I can't think of any book--for kids or adults--that so succinctly and eloquently describes each musician's significance.) For readers who'd like to sample the actual music, Ehrhardt recommends recorded works for each Jazz Man: a couple tracks for each musician, and even two feature films (available on video) that display Bojangles' tapping talents. (Perhaps in future editions of this book, the publishers could include a companion CD/DVD.)
With apologies to the author--though inspired by her:
This jazz fan, I count one,
"This Jazz Man" is lots of fun!
With a smile and a nod and an "ain't that grand!"
Let's give Ehrhardt a great big hand!
Book Description
The unique, gripping account of the perilous showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union. During the thirteen days in October 1962 when the United States confronted the Soviet Union over its installation of missiles in Cuba, few people shared the behind-the-scenes story as it is told here by the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In a clear and simple record, he describes the personalities involved in the crisis, with particular attention to the actions and attitudes of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. He describes the daily, even hourly, exchanges between Russian representatives and American. In firsthand immediacy we see the frightening responsibility of two great nations holding the fate of the world in their hands.
Customer Reviews:
first-hand-account, fast-paced, fascinating .......2007-09-12
Read up on one of the most terrifying moments in history, the near destruction of the world by nuclear holocaust. This quick read takes you inside the White House where policy makers decided how best to react to the Soviet Union's establishing a nuclear missile base on the island of Cuba. This is a first-hand-account, fast-paced, fascinating page-turner of a history book.
A short but complete walkthrough.......2007-03-23
I picked this book up as research for a speech I gave, and found I didn't have to look much further for an understanding of the events. RFK's account--from any source--is very accurate and detailed. It goes right along with the movie "13 days" but, as any book would, offers a much more accurate portrayal of the events. If you do get this book (which I highly recommend for anyone interested in the Cuban Missile Crisis, or history for that matter), you should also look in to the Havana Conference, which really shines some light on the full gravity of the situation.
Some insight, some disappointment.......2005-10-31
I was looking forward to reading this book on what I thought would be a keen insider's look at the Cuban missile crisis, and was somewhat disappointed. I realize that RFK was not able to complete the text, and perhaps that is reflected in it's length (100 pages of narrative). A large part of the printed material, about 1/3, is made up of supporting documents. I had hoped for more detail about the minute-to-minute events of those 13 days. The strength of the book is its undeniably interesting topic and author. There was insight to the crisis that I had not previously known, and reading it here was interesting and informative. For a mid-1900's buff, this might be one piece of a collection and its uniqueness may prove worthwhile. This is the first book I read on the Cuban missile crisis, and I am left wanting a lot more.
Thirteen Days : A Review.......2005-08-02
This is a riveting firsthand account of a period of intense confrontation between 2 superpowers that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. It is a short, intense read followed by additional material from other authors that rounds out the edges of the story. This book clearly shows how good President Kennedy was a balancing the military option with diplomacy to save us from nuclear war. It is hard to imagine how this could have beeen handled better by any other President.
On the Brink of Nuclear War.......2005-05-21
Thirteen Days recounts the days that the United States seemed to be on the brink of a nuclear war. The author Robert F. Kennedy chronicled his role in the think-tank that steared the United States out of this crisis in the book. It is a tragedy that the book was never truly completed as Kennedy intended to add a section that questioned the ethics of war and nuclear war. It is a shame that the world was robbed of the view point of his scholarly mind.
In the era of the cable news networks , much of the information in this book seems thin. There is so much Kennedy could have elaborated on in this book. In its time, the book gave Americans their deepest look into the Kennedy White House. Many other books have more indepth accounts of the Cuban Missle Crisis, but none have the personal touch of a Kennedy. Learning from the disaster caused by groupthink that caused the failure of the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy surrounded himself with a diverse group that was willing to debate all sides of the issue. All ideas were encouraged, but only one was selected. Seeing multiple view points allowed them to explore all the aspects of the issue, including how the Soviets might react/feel. Great thinkers traditionally explore topics in very open forums such as this. There is no narrow minded partisanism here, just a quest for peace. Though slight, this is a great account of one of the finest hours in the Kennedy administration.
Average customer rating:
- Well Done, Indeed!
- One of the best "thrillers" I have read
- a superior writer
- No Sophomore Slump here
- Peculiar ecclesiastical murder investigation
|
Valley of Bones
Michael Gruber
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Tropic of Night
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ASIN: 0060577673
Release Date: 2006-02-28 |
Amazon.com
This top-notch novel confirms Gruber's place as a gifted writer who stretches the conventional bounds of the genre by placing the mysteries of faith and religious experience and the complexities of the human mind as well as spirit at the center of his work. It's a taut, compelling whodunit that's as far from a typical detective procedural as good is from evil and a worthy follow-up to his acclaimed debut (Tropic of Night) that also features Cuban-American cop Jimmy Paz. Here Gruber tells a mesmerizing tale of Emmylou Dideroff, who communes with saints and whose checkered past includes stints as a hooker, drug dealer, and the leader of a band of Sudanese freedom fighters. But did she kill the Arab businessman on a government "watch list" who plunged to his death from a Miami hotel? While that's the incident that brings her to Paz's attention, it's only one of his questions about this strange woman, whose unsettling "confessions" stir up the detective's confusion about his own deepest beliefs. Emmylou is as fascinating and fully realized as Jane Doe, the memorable protagonist of Gruber's first book--so too is Lorna Wise, the psychologist brought in to assess Emmylou's sanity, whose personal and professional lives are turned totally upside down by her involvement in the case and her relationship with Paz. This is a smart, riveting, wholly original and thoroughly fascinating book that's impossible to put down and leaves the reader with only one question--when is this author's next one coming out? --Jane Adams
Book Description
The body of a wealthy oilman plunges ten stories from the balcony of a Miami hotel, and is impaled on an iron fence below. In the dead man's room, Jimmy Paz, the famed detective who solved the grisly Voodoo Murders, and Tito Morales, a young cop who witnessed the fall, find a woman on her knees, engaged in intimate conversation with Saint Catherine of Siena. Emmylou Dideroff had a strong motive for murder, and the evidence against her is overwhelming -- but she insists she's innocent of the crime, while freely admitting her guilt in numerous other amoral and unspeakable acts. And the shocking confessions of this complex enigma -- abused victim or vengeful whore, god-touched prophetess or delusional psychopath, demon or saint -- are leading Paz, Morales, and psychologist Lorna Wise into a terrifying dance with the Devil himself.
Download Description
"
The startling reviews of
Tropic of Night announced Michael Gruber as one of the most talented thriller writers to debut in many years. Now, with the much-anticipated publication of
Valley of Bones, Gruber fulfills that genre-bending promise as perhaps no writer since Graham Greene, with a genuinely exhilarating thriller that simultaneously offers a profound, deeply provocative exploration of the nature of faith itself.
The setting is Miami. Rookie cop Tito Morales arrives at the Trianon Hotel to investigate a routine disturbance call -- and, to his shock and horror, watches as a wealthy oilman plunges ten stories and impales himself on a nearby fence. Soon Morales is joined by detective Jimmy Paz, famous throughout the city for solving -- or at least providing a plausible solution to -- the so-called Voodoo Murders that left Miami burning months earlier.
Together Paz and Morales enter the hotel and discover, in the dead man's room, a most unusual suspect, an otherworldly woman by the name of Emmylou Dideroff. She emerges from a rapturous, prayerlike state and admits that she had a motive for killing the oilman. Ultimately, she says she wants to confess, and asks for a pen and several notebooks in which to convey the details of her confession.
What Emmylou writes is nothing like what Paz expects; he enlists psychologist Lorna Wise in an effort to make sense of things that go beyond Emmylou's explanation of the murder: details of childhood abuse, of other crimes committed, of regular communion with saints -- and with the devil. Is she mentally disturbed or playacting in hopes of getting declared unfit for trial? Or does she really believe herself to be an instrument of God? And why is it that so many people -- including Paz's biological father -- are suddenly interested in the contents of these notebooks and in preventing them from becoming public?
As
Valley of Bones moves toward its startling and dramatic finale, Emmylou's ""confessions"" lead Jimmy Paz, Lorna Wise, and Tito Morales down a series of unexpected and dangerous turns that puts them in the path of perhaps the most terrifying evil imaginable and forces each of them to confront questions about faith, love, and the possibility of the miraculous.
"
Customer Reviews:
Well Done, Indeed!.......2007-02-09
A man is thrown to his death from a high-rise. Cops rush to the scene and find a woman in his apartment. She is arrested for murderer, but claims to be possessed by a demon that makes her do things she can't always remember. Nice blend of horror and mystery and worth reading.
One of the best "thrillers" I have read.......2007-01-21
A complex and intriguing story, written with such intimacy I felt that I knew the heroine personally. Outstanding!
a superior writer.......2007-01-12
Michael Gruber is a superior writer of mysteries which border interestingly and believably on the magical/supernatural. His detective Jimmy Paez is a Cuban who is or was a detective with the Miami PD, a man of superior intuition who is conflicted between his western rationality and something more mysterious and vaster in scope. Night of the Jaguar and Tropic of Night deal interestingly with Siberian shamanism, Yoruba magic, Amazon indian shamanism, and Santeria. Valley of Bones deals with an extreme sect of Catholic nuns consecrated to nursing on battle lines. He acknowledges and delves into matters not as "ignorant superstitions" but as valid worldviews with their own particular power. He is well worth getting acquainted with.
No Sophomore Slump here.......2006-06-27
I was intrigued by Gruber's first outing, Tropic of Night. I expected a let down for book two.... Boy was I disappointed -- and delighted! It's like he went to the world's greatest writing school and immediately learned how to expand his best parts and whittle back the slower sections of Tropic of Night.
Valley of Bones will surely be the best book I read this year. I'm sure of it and it's not even July.
On to # 3 !
Peculiar ecclesiastical murder investigation.......2006-05-18
As is his penchant in previous Michael Gruber propagated novels, Cuban American Miami P.D. homicide detective, Jimmy Paz becomes immersed in another strange investigation in "Valley Of Bones".
Paz is called into a case which on the surface appears to be a suicide. A big wig Muslim from Sudan apparently jumped from a tenth floor balcony of a posh Miami hotel, impaling himself on a spiked wrought iron fence. Upon further review of the body shows signs of foul play. Paz and his partner Tito Morales find a woman in the victim's room praying when they go to investigate. Clues found at the scene implicate the woman. Here we are introduced to the multi faceted religous fanatic suspect Emmylou Dideroff.
At this point Gruber proceeds in a rather unique manner. He weaves together 3 separate storylines which alternate in his chapters. The main body of the plot involves the investigation of the murder by Paz. We also learn that Emmylou had a hard to fathom life history. We learn this because she writes out the story of her life to be used in her defense and at the behest of court appointed psychologist Dr. Lorna Wise. Wise is to judge whether Emmylou is mentally competent to stand trial. Gruber devotes chapters to the relating of Emmylou's story. We also find out that Emmylou belongs to an order of nuns called the Nursing Sisters of the Blood of Christ. The history of this well funded order founded in 1895 is also explored in a series of short chapters.
What makes the plot interesting is the background of Emmylou Dideroff. She hailed from Florida the product of a philandering Cajun father who died young and a young ill prepared psychotic mother. She suffered pedophilia at the hands of her stepfather, a local lawman. She suffered from visions, thinking them to be of Satan who lead her down an unfortunate path. She was manipulative and arranged things that resulted in the murder and suicide deaths of her mother and step father. Fleeing the scene she took to living in the streets, streetwalking and taking drugs. She eventually allied herself with a major marijuana cultivator and distributor Orne Foy. Foy headed a commune in the wilds of Virginia where she lived. The commune was eventually raided by the Feds and she was wounded. This led her to the enclave of the Nursing Sisters where she eventually joined the order. Oh yes, she also apparently had visions of St. Catherine of Siena as well as the devil.
Her association with her order led her to work in Sudan where she helped organize a largegroup of poor villagers caught in between waring factions of a civil war.
Paz began realizing that his investigation led to clandestine groups within the government, which was corroborated by his superior Major Oliphant. Paz along with Dr. Wise who was helping him in his inquest and eventually becoming a love interest, began to have threats on their lives. Paz, whose life had been filled with religious beliefs of Santeria, began believing that Emmylou had some supernatural aspects to her being. He also discovered that the murder of the Sudanese victim had a tie in to a supposed large cache of oil reserves buried in southern Sudan.
Gruber's convoluted plot while fascinating was occasionally just too overwhelming. Having to digest the supernatural, religion, philosophy along with a tortuous murder investigation at times became too tedious. His imagination, however is very expansive and for the most part "Valley of Bones" was an intriguing read.
Book Description
The closest we've ever come to the end of the world
"DEFCON-2 is the best single volume on the Cuban Missile Crisis published and is an important contribution to the history of the Cold War. Beyond the military and political facts of the crisis, Polmar and Gresham sketch the personalities that created and coped with the crisis. They also show us how close we came to the edge without becoming sensationalistic."
—Larry Bond, bestselling author of Dangerous Ground
Spy-satellite and aerial-reconnaissance photos reveal that one of the United States's bitterest enemies may be acquiring weapons of mass destruction and the means to use them against the American homeland. Administration officials refuse to accept intelligence professionals' interpretation of these images and order an end to spy missions over the offending nation. More than a month later, after vicious infighting, the president orders the spy missions to resume. The new photos reveal an array of ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking deep within U.S. territory. It appears that the missiles will be fully operational within one week.
This is not a plot setup for a suspense novel; it is the true story of the most terrifying moment in the 45-year Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union: the Cuban Missile Crisis. DEFCON-2 tells this tale as it has never been told before—from both sides, with the help of hundreds of recently declassified U.S. and Soviet documents, as well as interviews with numerous former spies, military figures, and government officials who speak out here for the first time.
Customer Reviews:
Th Cuban Missle crisis.......2007-07-03
The two authors expertly present all of the details of the 1962 misle crisis within Cuba tht almost prompted a nuclear war with the United States. This bok is very well written. I found it compelling all the way thru and rally could not put it down.
The Definitive Story of "The Missiles of October".......2006-09-12
For thirteen days in October 1962, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war. The two global superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, brought their nuclear arsenals of missile-armed submarines, long-range strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles to an unprecedented condition of war readiness. In the U.S., the armed forces' hair-trigger alert level was called "Defense Condition 2," or "DEFCON-2." The world held its breath as all eyes turned to the small island nation of Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida.
DEFCON-2 tells the story of the "Cuban Missile Crisis." It began in the fall of 1962. Frustrated and threatened by American missiles based in Europe, and seeking both a military and political foothold in the Western Hemisphere, Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev decided to establish SS-4 medium-range and SS-5 intermediate-range nuclear-armed ballistic missile bases in Fidel Castro's Cuba. The clandestine operation was called "Anadyr." It did not remain secret for long. On October 14, an American U-2 spy plane flew a routine high-altitude reconnaissance mission over the Communist island. Intelligence analysts who later examined the photographs from the mission detected the construction of the missile bases. They raised the alarm, and within hours the crisis was on. Before it ended two weeks later, the U.S. and USSR came closer to waging nuclear war on each other than at any other time during the Cold War. The eventual peaceful resolution of the crisis was unarguably U.S. President John F. Kennedy's finest hour, a time in which he and his closest political and military advisors "really earned their paychecks."
There have been many other books about the Cuban Missile Crisis, but none have been as thoroughly researched, detailed and readable as "DEFCON-2." One of the advantages that historians and authors have today is that they can draw on literally thousands of documents that the former USSR has released from the KGB's most secret vaults. These documents reveal the Soviet side of past global events that, for Western researchers, had previously been shrouded in mystery and subject to conjecture. The U.S., albeit at a slow pace and with considerable resistance in some cases, also continues to declassify formerly secret documents. DEFCON-2 authors Norman Polmar and John D. Gresham took full advantage of such sources to construct the most comprehensive history yet of the Kennedy-Khrushchev game of "brinksmanship" that could have ended civilization as we know it. One of the facts that the authors reveal is that we were MUCH closer to nuclear war than previously thought.
With several useful appendices, 40 pages of chapter footnotes and an extensive bibliography, DEFCON-2 can serve as a stand-alone single-volume reference or as an excellent starting point for further research. I highly recommend it for students of the Cold War, for anyone who sweated through the crisis or for anyone who wants to learn a lesson from history.
Very detailed, but repetitive........2006-07-25
Pros: very detailed account of the crisis and gives a good brief overview of the cold war (before and after). Well documented sources and factual data including military units, policies, weapons, maps & charts.
Cons: disorganized timeline and repetitive information throughout the book made it boring to read.
In my opinion, the book would have been much better served if the chapters had been laid out in a daily timeline. The authors wrote chapters that describe in detail certain aspects if the crisis. The problem is that each chapter seems to tell the story of the crisis from the beginning. The further you get through the book, it's as if your rereading it for the third of fourth time. I went from eagerly wanting to read it to dreading to start the next chapters.
Particularly appropriate these days.......2006-05-08
As a second-grader during the Cuban Missile Crisis, I remember President Kennedy's address on TV, the black-and-white photos of the missiles sites, the talk of the quarantine line. Reading DEFCON-2 brought back a rush of memories.
Perhaps one of the most enlightening aspects of the book was the background on Nikita Khruyshev. The bogeyman of my childhood has been redeemed; his was perhaps the coolest, wisest head during a nightmare.
Scary, Very Scary - We Were Lucky.......2006-03-16
During the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis I was living in Boston. One day I was flying somewhere and while taxing out to the runway I noticed several B-47 jet bombers, their wings bent down with fuel, and armed guards with dogs walking around them. I realized that this was pretty serious.
From time to time since then more information has come out about what was really happening. And in very recent times de-classification of materials from the time and open discussion with some the people involved make it clear that this was a much more serious incidend that we thought at the time.
For instance there were some 40,000 Russian soldiers on the island that we didn't know about. These soldiers were armed with short range nuclear missiles. They had the authority to use them if the U.S. invaded. A few nukes set off in the midst of an invasion fleet would have made a real mess.
Some of the intelligence reports of the time were real good. Some of them were otherwise. Admidst the bluster and the threatening, cooler heads prevailed and nuclear was was avoided. Never again would the two superpowers come so close. Maybe the truth of this flight was enough to make the leaders of both powers back down.
This is the most complete, the most detailed report of what happened. It is a scary book.
Book Description
Cuba has long fascinated, mystified, and frustrated Americans. Now, in this sweeping work, Louis A. Pérez Jr. transforms the way we view Cuba and its relationships with the United States. Drawing from an enormous range of sources, including archival records, oral interviews, and examples from popular culture, Pérez reveals a powerful web of everyday, bilateral connections between Cuba and the United States. He shows how America's cultural and political forms profoundly influenced Cuba's identity, nationality, and sense of modernity from the early 1850s, when the island was still a Spanish colony, until the revolution that erupted in 1959. In exploring Cuba's encounter with the United States, Pérez articulates the cultural context for that revolution, tracing it to the country's growing dissatisfaction at not having kept pace with America's own rampant prosperity and modernization.
Customer Reviews:
Cuban-Americans Must Read this book.......2004-12-19
Castro's bloody footprint on Cuba's back will soon be over, and the re-construction will then begin.
Before that happens, this book - together with a few more - should be read by those who hope to stake a claim on the future of that island.
The book is educational and informative, although it seems to put a lot of emphasis on the upper middle class of pre-Castro Cuba and little on the lower classes, with some small exceptions on the issue of race and Afro-Cubans. Too much is also made of Desi Arnaz's negative portrayal of Cuban men, although I never knew until I read this book that Eamon de Valera was half Cuban and that the Capote in Truman was Cuban.
But it does hit the nail right on the head on the formula via which the Cuban culture and character - so different from other Latin American countries - was formed.
The powerful influence of the USA and all things American upon the island may have been somewhat blown out of proportion (especially when not brought to a lower class context), but it was (and is) nonetheless important and a key ingridient in the make-up of the modern Cuban.
I suspect that when Cuba opens up to the world, those Cubans who remained in the prison island will soon re-join the interrupted life of a island full of paradoxes, brilliant thinkers and an unfortunate history of dictators and bloodshed. And perhaps the marriage between Castro's Afro-Cuba and the exile's mostly white-Cuba will result not in a baptism of fire (or blood) but in an incorporation of lessons learned in 50 years of modern exile with the astounding eneregy and creativity of the Cuban people.
On Becoming a Member of the Privileged Class in Havana.......2002-09-29
That should be the title of this book. The author makes the same mistake many have made: to them Havana=Cuba. If it happened in Havana, it must be so in the rest of the island. From the beginning of the book he attributes to all Cubans what really applies to the upper class of Havana: travelling to the U.S. on vacation; sending their children to be educated on the U.S.; shopping sprees in New York; conducting their businesses on the American model, etc.
I was born in Camagüey and lived in Oriente and still have family in Cuba and I never heard of, much less witnessed many of the "facts" he gives. I've checked with several other Cubans, older than I from all over the island, about some of the authors assertions and everyone assures me Cubans did not celebrate Thanksgiving; kids did not get toys on December 25 (it was January 6); few Cubans spoke English, many Americans spoke Spanish; men did not stop flirting with "mulatas" in favor of blondes; and American supermarkets did not obliterate the neighborhood bodega. Perhaps that's the way it was in the Americanized Vedado neighborhood.
The author quotes from many novels and short stories. The writings of Cuban revolutionaries, the constitution written for the formation of the Cuban nation during the 10-year war, the effects of that 10-year war, and the effects of the war of independence on Cubans' idea of nationality are practically ignored. It seems we Cubans obtained all notion of who we are from the U.S.
Sociologist-like, he ascribes deeper meaning to all kinds of things; for example: the Cubans' enthusiastic adoption of baseball becomes an anti-Spanish, pro-feminist protest and a condemnation of Bullfighting as a bloody, colonial sport. How about this: baseball was fun and was not only a spectator sport, even kids could play it pretty much anywhere. Can't do that with a bull fight. As for rebelling against bloody, primitive sports: cockfighting has been part of Cuba's "sports" life from the colonial period.
It goes on and on. True there are neat facts in there: the early adoption of technology in Cuba, the symbiotic relationship between the U.S. and Cuba and a few other interesting tid bits. But his interpretation of the American influence in the notion of what it means to be Cuban is skewed. I must admit it got to me: I couldn't finish the book. I stopped at Chapter 6 because I anticipated what was coming: Fidel's revolution puts a stop to all that and now Cubans have a more real view of who they are. Am I right? Is that the punch line?
No one can deny the influence of the U.S. on Cuba. Its proximity, and its intervention in Cuban affairs garanteed that, but this book is replete with misinterpretations or are they misrepresentations?.
Can't recommend it.
On becoming russian: after 1959.......2002-09-09
This book helped me very much as a source of data on events that happened way before my time, mainly because in Castro's Cuba most of this has been distorted, or in many cases, access has been totally impossible. I found the book very interesting and educational at the same time, very helpful also in making me understand better our influences and roots, as well as that tremendous link, for good or bad, that always existed with the United States and that Castro always persisted and portrayed as something not important and besides , very negative. However I have my problems with this book , especially on the last chapters, the revolution era, which is the one I lived, and know the most. I'm 36 now, and lived 25 years in Cuba, so I have a pretty clear knowledge of how things were and are during this years of "revolution". As many other non-cuban authors, Perez seem to have a problem criticizing the regime for what it's been responsible and on the other hand puts most of the blame on the United states, I think than from a fear point of view we got more positive things than negative ones from them. Corruption and mishandling of the government is constantly mentioned during the republic period; but very little is said about castro's failures. Nothing is said about the assassination and abuses that took place during those first years of revolution, practice that has continued during all these years. Unfortunately it was during these years that many liberals and idealist turned a blind eye to what was happening in the island. Nobody wanted to talk about what was really happening and preferred to accept the idea that the US were to blame for the rupture in the relationships between both countries. Still today not many people know about the darkest years of the revolution, a good example is that Ernesto"che" Guevara is still considered by many as a modern Quixote, a romanticized revolutionary that fought the imperialism in order to built a better world, when in reality he was nothing but a selfish murderer who committed all kind of atrocities, mostly in my country, and played a leading role in the process that turned the revolution into that aberrant regime that has ruled the country for more than four decades. So what I found negative about this book is that not giving a fair and balanced analysis on this part of the Cuban history affects the credibility of what was said about the rest of it. A good book for those who would like to read a least detailed but very fair analysis is" journey to the heart of Cuba" by Carlos A. Montaner.
Not entirely accurate.......2002-08-05
The trouble with scholars and academics is their middle-class presumption that the world is middle-class. This book suffers from this presumption.
I married a Cuban, have been to Cuba five times, and know that there are both rich and poor in that country--just as there are in the U.S. There are Cubans in government and baseball stars and artists with access to dollars who are chauffered in their Benzes, live in gated mansions with electric fences, and swim in their backyard pools. In the meantime, my relatives live without running water or a phone. They have an extension cord leading from the neighbor's house to get electricity. When the annual hurricane hits, they live in the local secondary school's gymnasium, along with everyone else in their neighborhood in Cerro who lives in a plywood house.
Let's decide not to idealize the Revolution.
I'm not on the side of the anti-Castro supporters in Miami (I'm not Cuban)--I think free quality healthcare and education is an amazing achievement. And despite the last ten years of intense lack of material help since the Soviet Union dissolved, Cubans have an amazing stamina and love of life that gives them the hope to survive.
But let's not--especially for the academics who travel to Cuba and see only the middle class Cubans living there--idealize the country. Reader: check out "Afro-Cuban Voices" to get another side of the story.
Coca-Colony of the Caribbean.......2002-06-15
Professor Perez has done another outstanding job of exploring the complexities of U.S.-Cuban relations. Again he has shown that the Revolution of 1959 didn't happen just because Castro read Marxist books while in college. Professor Perez explains why Castro's generation were reading the Marxist books in the first place.
There are some things in the critique of U.S. culture which are disturbing, to a North American, not so much in Professor Perez' presentation as in the chauvinistic attitude of some Cubans quoted here, expecially regarding language. All languages borrow from each other. English is full of loan words, from French, Latin, etc., and are considered normal parts of speech. This can be accepted without a sense of victimization. The "I Love Lucy" episodes referred to were not as bad as portrayed; "Ricky" was not a buffoon and corrected Lucy's miscomprehensions about Cuba more than once.
That said, this book is still good stuff. Yanquis (including Yanquified Miami "Cubans")should read it before they reconquer Cuba in the next decade.
Amazon.com
The Berlin Wall has been rubble for a decade and the memories of the cold war are growing dim. And yet no one is ever likely to forget the Cuban Missile crisis of October 1962, when the world stood on the brink of full-scale nuclear war as the Soviet Union and America locked horns off the coast of Florida. The Soviet navy set sail for Cuba loaded with nuclear warheads for their newly constructed missile bases, precipitating the crisis. After 10 days of high tension, the Soviet Union backed down and the warheads were sent back home. War was averted, but up until now, no one has ever been too certain just how close the world came to catastrophe. Kennedy was assassinated long before he could write his memoirs, Castro's lips are sealed, and the Soviet archives were a closed book.
Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali have taken advantage of recent unrestricted access to Soviet records and performed painstaking detective work to fill the gaps in the historical record. Some of the tension of the narrative is lost, because we know the outcome; even so, they give penetrating insights as they reconstruct the drama step by step. We learn that the Kremlin did seriously consider launching a nuclear attack on the U.S.: the appropriate orders were discussed and Khrushchev spent the night of October 22 in his office so he could be on hand to cable his authorization. Some of the most interesting facts to emerge, however, are those concerning John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. JFK had always previously been portrayed as something of a parochial gung-ho type, but this, it emerges, was merely a public persona designed to appease the Pentagon hawks. At the same time JFK was talking about a Cuban invasion, he and his brother were engaging in a more secret policy of appeasement through the Soviet ambassador. Fortunately for all of us, diplomacy won the day. In recent years, JFK has been somewhat discredited as a leader for his unpleasant sexual carryings-on and corruption. It may just be that this view is as incomplete as his portrayal as the saintly "King of Camelot". If so, One Hell of a Gamble could be the first stage in his partial rehabilitation. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
Based on classified Soviet archives, including the files of Nikita Khrushchev and the KGB, "One Hell of a Gamble" offers a riveting play-by-play history of the Cuban missile crisis from American and Soviet perspectives simultaneously. No other book offers this inside look at the strategies of the Soviet leadership. John F. Kennedy did not live to write his memoirs; Fidel Castro will not reveal what he knows; and the records of the Soviet Union have long been sealed from public view: Of the most frightening episode of the Cold War--the Cuban Missile Crisis--we have had an incomplete picture. When did Castro embrace the Soviet Union? What proposals were put before the Kremlin through Kennedy's back-channel diplomacy? How close did we come to nuclear war? These questions have now been answered for the first time. This important and controversial book draws the missing half of the story from secret Soviet archives revealed exclusively by the authors, including the files of Nikita Khrushchev and his leadership circle. Contained in these remarkable documents are the details of over forty secret meetings between Robert Kennedy and his Soviet contact, records of Castro's first solicitation of Soviet favor, and the plans, suspicions, and strategies of Khrushchev. This unique research opportunity has allowed the authors to tell the complete, fascinating, and terrifying story of the most dangerous days of the last half-century.
Customer Reviews:
Most Detailed account of Cuban-Missile Crisis.......2006-10-16
Two Harvard scholars, Russian Historian Aleksandr Fursenko and American Historian Timothy Nafatali expose the missing gaps to one of the Cold War's most pivotal episodes - the Cuban Missile Crisis. In their 1998 book One Hell of a Gamble, they convincingly argue that the Post-WWII episode was an international dilemma. Contending that "no one person or government created the mix of interest, power, and fear that nearly exploded in 1962," the authors develop a sound narrative that illuminates the finer details of the crisis. They succeed marvelously, with minor exceptions, at explaining the Soviet and American nuances of the dramatic history involved in the early 60's. Beginning with the rise of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and ending with Khrushchev's demise, the work chronicles the delicate balance of power that tilted back and forth between the superpowers and Cuba.
The authors masterfully handle Soviet archives, and American sources, but the authors somewhat clumsily rifle through Cuban historiography. The opening chapters, however, do correctly portray Castro's budding relationship with the Soviet Union, and his diminishing alliance with the United States. And the failed Bay of Pigs operation coupled with Kennedy's campaign promise to "not be soft" on Cuba, did indeed solidify Castro's motivation to ally with the Soviets. In contrast, one of the chief frailties of the work lies with the somewhat unclear portrayal of Castro's image and relationship with key confidants. Granted, the authors lacked access to Cuban archives, but the absence of corroboration leaves room for question. For instance, the authors portray Castro as having a "privileged background" in his early years and offer little evidence to substantiate this claim. This description of Castro, however, contradicts most scholarship on the dictator's earlier years. Ernesto Betancourt, Washington Representative to Castro in the late 50's, noted that Castro was "one of the illegitimate children of the house servant sired by his father." Betancourt further noted that Castro was embarrassed about his childhood and disillusioned by not being allowed to utilize the "facilities established for American staffers at the United Fruit Club." The club, which in part was established by the profits of his father's sugar plantation, created a wedge of indifference between the young Castro and the Americans. According to Betancourt, the aforementioned facts led to the complex that feeds Castro's "inferiority against the Cuban upper classes . . . [and] . . . the United States in general." The author's portrayal of Castro's image as a young man was incomplete and somewhat misleading. With a minor lapse in scholarship, the authors quickly change academic gears and advance a sound narrative on the Soviet historiography of the crisis.
Utilizing a trove of recently accessible Soviet archives, the Harvard scholars introduce new behind- the- scene details of how the crisis unfolded. The Soviets, of course, capitalized on America's failed overthrow of Cuba. Khrushchev estimated that the deployment of nuclear warheads ninety miles from America's coastline would tip the strategic nuclear balance in the Soviet's favor and would support the Cuban revolution. Moreover, he projected that the deployment of warheads could be kept secret until it was too late for the U.S. to act. This, of course, was an error in judgment - as U-2 reconnaissance planes quickly determined the presence of missiles in Cuba. Formerly, scholars ascribed to the belief that hard-liners in the Kremlin forced, or highly encouraged, Khrushchev to place Soviet warheads on the island nation. However, the evidence presented by the authors discounts this premise - and strongly suggests that Khrushchev's acted alone in this decision.
After the American discovery of warheads in Cuba in October of 1962, the two superpowers engaged in active diplomatic negotiations. In previous histories of the crisis, it was thought that only official and public channels were utilized for communications between the countries. Utilizing a partially transcribed collection of the Kennedy ExCom (Executive Committee) tapes, we learn for the first time about a small network of back channel communications - which proved to be vital in the continuing negotiations for peaceful resolution to the crisis. For instance, Aleksandr Alekseev, the Soviet Ambassador to Havana, provided an informal communication channel between the Cubans and Soviets. Similarly, Georgi Bolshakov a Soviet Intelligence officer, relayed messages between the Soviets and Americans via Robert Kennedy and American journalist Frank Holeman.
Ironically, the authors reveal that Kennedy provided private concessions to the Kremlin via Bolshakov during the critical thirteen days of the crisis. Most importantly, Kennedy agreed to remove the American Jupiter missiles from Turkey - a revelation that was not publicized to the media.
Interestingly, only bilateral sources, namely known intelligence officers and journalists, were noted in this work. The authors, however, fail to mention the GRU spy, Oleg Penkovsky, who allegedly provided the CIA with detailed information on the Soviet missile capabilities and locations at the time. In The Spy Who Saved the World, Penkovsky was given credit for relaying crucial intelligence reports to the Kennedy Administration, which allegedly contributed to his decision for a quarantine of the Soviet naval fleet. It remains unclear why Fursenko and Naftali omitted this fact; perhaps they had no detailed evidence that the U.S had legitimate clandestine sources. Of course, de-classified intelligence archives from both the CIA and KGB may have been sanitized; and therefore, may have limited the author's ability to understand and synthesize intelligence sources. Whatever the case, the Penkovsky exclusion limits the intelligence scholarship of the missile crisis. One question the authors may have raised, was whether Kennedy fully utilized intelligence provided by unilateral human sources, such as Penkovsky, during the crisis?
Thankfully for mankind, the careful deliberations between Kennedy and Khrushchev resulted in a peaceful compromise that averted a thermo-nuclear war. The authors concluded that after the missile crisis "Khrushchev and Kennedy were now willing to take risks for better relations." Their efforts established a détente between the two superpowers - but one that was brief. Unfortunately, the short-lived prospect faded after the November 1963 Kennedy assassination and the October 1964 coup that removed Khrushchev from power.
One hell of a Gamble is a tremendously detailed work that exceeds previous scholarship on the post-WWII crisis. The authors offer compelling evidence that the crisis came closer to spinning out of control than once thought. We discover that Castro, Khrushchev, and Kennedy were "ultimately driven by a sense of what was best for themselves, and for their people." Moreover, the authors convincingly demonstrate that Cuba became the pivotal pawn in the Cold War chess match between the Soviets and the Americans. So persuasive was their story, that film director Ronald Donaldson used the context of their work for the film Thirteen Days - which depicted the crucial two weeks of the missile crises. Although an unexceptional account of the crisis on the American and Cuban fronts, the authors do offer an authoritative interpretation on Soviet historiography during the 1962 crisis. Cold War scholars should pay careful attention to this work, which highlights some of the missing details of an especially tense period during the Cold War.
The Cuban Missile Crisis' Origins, Events, and Decisions.......2005-09-19
In 1958, Fidel Castro and his band of guerillas successfully overthrew the despised Batista regime in Cuba. At the time, Castro was a question mark for US policymakers. He actually was invited to visit the US and gave a speech at Harvard. However, his domestic socialist reforms caused consternation in Washington, while the communist affiliations of his leading supporters (e.g. his brother, Raul, and Che Guevara) created outright alarm. The authors infer that in 1958 Castro could have gone either way, i.e. communist or non-communist. However, Washington's thinly veiled distrust and eventual outright hostility against him supposedly pushed him into seeking Soviet support.
The book then continues, following Castro's ascension to power, his increasing fear of US-backed invasion, and his greater and greater demands for increased Soviet protection. Surpisingly, the Soviets initially had as little interest in Castro's Cuba as Washington. However, the Cold War was on, and Kruschev was eager to project Soviet influence at the expense of Mao's communist China. And what better way to assert Soviet prestige than by establishing a Soviet communist beachhead just off America's shores.
As the US stepped up its belated and ineffectual covert operations aimed at destabilizing and eventually toppling the Castro regime, Castro sought ever more Soviet economic, and especially military, assistance. One of the Soviet's first major successes was in implementing the block surveillance program. Arms shipments became greater, more frequent, and more obvious. However, Soviet-Castro relations became endangered by one of Castro's rebellious communist lieutenants, and the Soviets were stymied by their deficiency in ICBMs. Thus, Kruschev made the fateful and audacious decision to deploy Soviet medium and intermediate range nuclear missiles and bombers in Cuba.
Much of the rest of the story is well-known. American U2 reconnaisance flights over Cuba reveal the construction of Soviet missile and bomber bases. Kennedy goes on national TV to alert the US public to the crisis and gain support for potential military action. Behind the scenes, a deal is desperately sought to end the crisis. Ultimately, Kruschev publicly agrees to remove nukes from Cuba, while Kennedy privately agrees to reciprocate in removing American missiles from Turkey.
The book reveals a great deal about how strongly individual personalities affect history and national leadership. It also demonstrates how completely inept and unrealistic the CIA's operations were in Cuba. There were a few times during Castro's rise to power that the US had a chance of courting him; however, their own ignorance of Cuba's internal politics assured they would never capitalize on it. From my standpoint, the entire crisis could have been easily avoided by resolute leadership in the White House - either make Castro an ally, oust him when he was still weak, or guarantee that Cuba will not be military threatened by the US. The fault lies with both Eisenhower and Kennedy for their weak and vacillating policies towards Castro.
Very fine book on the most dangerous event of the Cold War.......2004-05-05
If you are interested in finding out what the Cuban Missile Crisis was actually about and how it was conducted and resolved, this is a fantastic book. Not only do we get the context of what went on during the Eisenhower administration when Castro came to power, but we get the context of what was going on in the Soviet Union as well.
I did not know that Raul Castro was the committed communist who advocated closer ties with the USSR. That Fidel was anti-US was always clear, but it was most interesting to read about how the connection between Cuba and the USSR developed and its limitations because of Fidel's undisciplined and independent nature.
The back-channel diplomacy was also very interesting to read about and why we didn't learn about the Jupiter missile removal from Turkey until much later was another story I wanted to understand. For me, the most useful things I learned were the lurching and stumbling nature of the way the USSR and the US played off of and against each other. Not only were both sides trying to balance the other side, each side was also trying to be provocative as well.
The book also notes that the Soviets saw the Kennedy assassination as the work of a far right wing conspiracy led by H.L. Hunt, although they had no real evidence but the word of journalist Paul Ward. They refused to believe that the President's security services could have allowed a lone madman to shoot the President (as was actually the case).
The book ends with a brief discussion of coup that removed Khrushchev and put Brezhnev in power.
The book is written very well and has a rich supply of notes and documentation backing up the story the authors report. I think it is a fascination and important book from the most dangerous period in the Cold War.
Simply a great book.......2004-04-30
I used this book as a text book for a class on the Cuban Missle Crisis. I recommend this for more than just a textbook. It was a pleasure to read, as it is written in more of a narrative way than a history book.
Indepth account of a part of history that could be repeated.......2003-07-25
Using declassified documents from the CIA and KGB, as well as other sources, this excellent book provides amazing insight into what was going on in the heads of the leaders of three nations as well as their subordinates, and provides a very clear picture of what happened, why it happened, who caused it to happen, and what happened afterward.
The book also gives a clear picture of what could have happened as a result of faulty intelligence and overconfidence .. something to think about given today's world climate as well.
Actually, "One Hell of a Gamble" really doesn't dwell on the Cuban Missile Crisis itself, but gives tremendous, detailed political and military background on the years leading up to CMC .. and the repercussions afterward, covering the entire period from 1958-1964. It is looking at this in the full context of those times, that the book delivers a rich and powerful read.
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