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- Earl Swagger Hunts Again!
- Earl is back
- Politics and bullets do mix
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Havana: An Earl Swagger Novel (Earl Swagger Novels)
Stephen Hunter
Manufacturer: Pocket
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ASIN: 0743457978 |
Amazon.com
The field of male fantasy fiction receives a generous literary boost with the publication of Havana, Stephen Hunter's third novel (following Hot Springs and Pale Horse Coming) to feature straight-shooting ex-Marine and Arkansas state policeman Earl Swagger.
Reluctantly leaving his wife and hero-worshipping son at home, Swagger flies off to Cuba in 1953 to act as a bodyguard for "Boss" Harry Etheridge, a rainmaking Southern congressman who proposes investigating the influence of New York gangsters on the Guantanamo Naval Base. Almost as soon as his lungs fill with the humid Caribbean air, Swagger regrets accepting this assignment. Not only must he contend with posturing, backstabbing U.S. intelligence agents, but Boss Harry proves to be both incautiously lustful (forcing Earl to rescue him from a Havana brothel confrontation) and a big target for mobsters who don't want American politicians or anyone else upsetting the profitable criminal equilibrium of Batista-era Cuba. Swagger exacerbates the risk to his longevity by agreeing to help the U.S. government assassinate Cuba's revolutionary darling of the moment, Fidel Castro--a task that will pit this Arkansas lawman against a disenchanted Russian killer who's been charged with protecting and mentoring the 26-year-old agitator.
Given Swagger's well-established weaponry skills, it's hardly surprising that Havana is peppered with tightly choreographed shootouts, both on dusty country roads and in a Zanja Street porno theater full of moaning patrons. That's the male fantasy part; this novel's literary inclination shows in its portrayal of Havana as a richly decadent city full of shiny-fendered Cadillacs, jaded whores, and casinos flushing money onto Florida-bound boats. While Ernest Hemingway and mob boss Meyer Lansky make cameo appearances here, only Castro leaves much of an impression, whether he's bumbling through an attack on a military barracks or defending himself against a father who thinks him lazy, vain, and "womanly" ("I am between opportunities, but I swear to you, I am a man of destiny"). Although Swagger's climactic gunfight tests the limits of credibility, Havana remains an unusually substantive page-turner, expertly blending hostilities with humor and heart. --J. Kingston Pierce
Book Description
Outgunning all others in the arena of razor-edged action and sheer guts, New york Times bestselling author Stephen Hunter plunges Earl Swagger deep into a steamy underworld of power, politics, and blood...
Cuba 1953: The island is on fire.
The Mafia-run casinos are rolling, and it's just a 30-minute flight from Miami to a world of vice, gambling, sex, and drugs. The money is there for anyone who knows how to get it, including the Cuban government and the police, who want to keep their ally Uncle Sam happy. There's only one threat to this corrupt utopia: a silver-tongued, daring young revolutionary named Fidel Castro. With the Cold War underway, the Soviet Union has sent a sophisticated veteran agent to find and support the young upstart. To counter, the CIA has summoned Medal of Honor-winning ex-marine Sergeant Earl Swagger, whose heroic exploits have earned him the reputation of a man who doesn't know how to lose. But he's not just going to find Castro....
He's going to kill him.
Download Description
"Havana, the sultry spring of 1953: gambling is expensive, sex is cheap, and death is free. A half-hour by air from Miami, it's the world's hottest -- and most dangerous -- city. From the plush mobster casinos in Centro to the backstreet brothels on Zanja Street, you can get anything you want, for a price. The city is the linchpin of many empires: the Mafia's, the CIA's, numerous American corporations', El Presidente's, and even the vice lords' of Old Havana. It must be protected at all costs. But now there's a threat. A young lawyer, a kid named Castro, is giving speeches. He speaks of reform, of change, of self-determination. He speaks of...of revolution even. This danger must be dealt with. So, into the steamy, sunny climate of corruption come two men, both unafraid, both skilled, both tough as ball bearings. They would be friends in a sane world, for they are so similar in their capabilities and experiences. But now they have to be enemies, because the Cold War is at its apogee: one is American, the other Russian. The American is named Earl Swagger. A Medal of Honor winner on Iwo Jima, a toughened gunman from adventures in Hot Springs and the swamps of Mississippi, Earl has been conned by two young Old Boys of the CIA to become Our Gun in Havana. The Russian, Speshnev, also a veteran of tough battles (from Spain in '36 to Berlin in '45, with a few stays in the gulag just for seasoning), has a similar assignment: he too is sent by strategic gamesters to pay attention to that same young orator. But his job is protection, not elimination.
Customer Reviews:
Earl Swagger Hunts Again!.......2007-09-30
I fell in love with Stephen Hunter's Earl Swagger novels this year. Luckily I discovered the first one at the beginning and listened to them on audiobook in order. There are three of them so far. HOT SPRINGS, PALE HORSE COMING, and HAVANA.
The Swagger name may sound familiar to people. Mark Wahlberg just starred in the movie SHOOTER as Earl's son, Bob Lee Swagger. Stephen Hunter has been intermittently writing novels about father and son over the last few years. Earl's adventures are set in the 1940s and 1950s. Bob Lee's are more in present-day, and the latest novel in that series, THE 47th SAMURAI, has just been released.
If you haven't read any of the Swagger novels, I really recommend reading them in order. Both series tell a story that's more mosaic than anything else. Both are pieces of the other. Hunter began with Bob Lee's stories, then told the first of Earl's. Obviously the author has become enamored of both his creations. Unfortunately, Earl's adventures maybe at an end after HAVANA. I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only fan that hopes this isn't so. I do know that THE 47th SAMURAI has chapters in it from Earl's point of view, and that the plot revolves around choices both Swaggers face.
HAVANA ends up being more spy story than either of the two previous books about Earl Swagger. I think Hunter had a hard time fitting Earl into the plot in some ways. The previous two books hit harder and were more driven by Earl's choices. In this book, Earl seems to be reactive more than proactive.
Everything centers around the unrest in Havana in the 1950s. The United States government has a Central Intelligence Agency operation in place on the island and they're carefully monitoring the political backlash surging against Carlos Batista, who is friendly toward the Americans. As long as Batista is in control, American companies will flourish there. At one time, Havana was referred to as the Disneyland for adults, referring to the gambling, prostitution, drinking, and drugs available.
The New York Mafia has bested interest in the island government as well. Meyer Lansky was there overseeing mob-related business throughout those turbulent years. Hunter uses the mob-influenced history to his advantage throughout the novel. There's even a mob hitman working for Lansky who is called Frankie Horse after he gunned down a New York policemen and his mount. The mob bosses didn't like the idea that Frankie had killed the horse. As punishment, he was sent down to Havana.
The story takes a little while to get started. There's a lot of backstory to set up, but it's all important to provide a picture of the political and economic climate of Havana during those years. Hunter obviously did his research well and enjoyed the subject matter.
Earl gets called in by the government to write shotgun for a senator while he's down in Havana. Harry Etheridge is a southern congressman with a taste for prostitutes. Earl doesn't really care for the assignment, but he's tempted when those who hire him point out that he could provide a much different future for his young son and wife. Those two people mean everything to Earl, and that's one of the reasons that I enjoy him so much as a character.
Earl is plainspoken and humble, and his world is black and white. He doesn't drink because he knows he can't handle it. When he fights, he gives everything he's got because he knows nothing less will do. He's one of the most decorated soldiers to ever come out of the Pacific theater in World War II. And he knows what killing's all about.
This story is bigger than the previous two Earl Swagger novels. In the earlier books, the plot remained thin and Earl stayed in the spotlight nearly the whole time through. HAVANA offered up a richly textured series of events and characters that at times eclipsed Earl. I missed having him on the pages, but there was so much else going on that caught my attention.
Hunter also obviously fell in love with Speshnev, a Russian soldier that was freed from a Siberian prison camp. Spesnev became something of a political embarrassment to Moscow and was locked away in spite of his service during World War II. The old Russian is a wily and cunning man gifted with great, dark humor. I found myself wishing that Stephen Hunter would write a book about him at some point just so I can see everywhere Speshnev has been and what he has done.
So Stephen, if you're reading this, know that you already have one fan waiting for that book.
The chemistry between Swagger and Speshnev is electric. I spent much of the book fearing the time they would meet over gun barrels. In the beginning, Speshnev saves Earl's butt twice, but I knew that they were working at cross purposes and that conflict would at some point need to be resolved.
Hunter also seems to have great fun poking at the CIA's presence in Havana. The intelligence agency seems to be primarily a joke as he shows the emergence of the new "laidback" agents the kind of fit the preppy model. But Hunter also gives them one of Earl's oldest foes in the form of Frenchy Short, who betrayed Earl's team in Hot Springs.
After caring for Senator Etheridge, and getting shot up for his trouble, Earl gets pressured by the CIA to become an assassin and kill Fidel Castro. At the same time, the reader knows that Sheshnev has been sent there to educate young Castro and get him ready to take over Cuba as a communist partner.
Although the reader knows that Earl isn't going to kill Castro, a lot of the story still yet remains to play through. Even without the mystery and suspense of how Earl was going to kill Castro, I stayed glued to my radio as the audio book played. I hated getting out at my stops and often found excuses to run errands that could've waited or go buy a Coke so I could get through a particularly exciting sequence. The problem was that most of the sequences in the book are exciting and is difficult to leave Earl in any one place after the action gets going.
Readers of the previous two books will know that this one has been done differently. Some may not like it because Earl is off screen so much, but if they hang around till after everything is set up, they'll get to see Earl in his element: hunting men and struggling to stay alive under harsh circumstances.
I had a great time with this book. I hate to think that this is the end of it. I would love to see another novel of Earl any time in here. I would especially love to see a war novel recounting Earl's adventures in the Pacific. After Earl returns home to his family in Blue Eye, Arkansas, it's not long before he's murdered while carrying out his job as an Arkansas State Trooper, though not in this book. And that gives me hope that another novel may yet be in the offing.
If this is all there is, I appreciate all the great stories. Hunter gives his readers a character that is at once real and ideal. There aren't many like him, not in real life and not in fiction.
Earl is back.......2007-02-10
This guy can write. I like the way he brought in the character of Earl in previous books and how we are now finding out more and more about him and how these facts helped formed the man, which was later reflected in his son. Improbable fiction but who cares. Entertaining and well written, keep on writing them.
Politics and bullets do mix.......2006-11-15
In this,the latest of the Earl Swagger novels, Stephen Hunter uses the backdrop of 1953 Cuba with its' complex mix of American capitalism run amok and emerging Soviet Communism. The ever virtous Swagger is plopped in the middle of this miasma by the CIA in an attempt to assasintate the rebel leader Fidel Castro.
I know a couple of the reviews have complained that you already know the outcome as Fidel was never assasinated, but I felt that this actually added intrigue to the book as the reader wonders how the usually unstoppable Swagger is going to be turned from his course. Although this book was not the testosterone fest that Hunters previous two novels (Hot Springs and especially Pale Horse Coming) were there is still enough bullets and fisticuffs to satisfy.
The greatest strength of this book was Hunter's ability to capture the atmosphere and feel of Cuba of the 1950's. By interjecting several real characters from American history and critically examining the United States involvement and behavior Hunter gives incredible creedence and a sense of reality to this tale. With the mob, CIA, Cuban Freedom Fighters and Soviet spies all involved it becomes almost impossible for Swagger to tell whom he can trust (if anybody).
The supporting characters, as usual with Hunters' recent work,are Portrayed with depth and feeling as well. As one reviewer stated the Soviet agent almost steals the story and provides a wondeful foil for Earl Swagger.
If you are looking for a good action-adventure novel with lots of political intrigue and set in one of the most tumultous locales in history then pick up a copy of Havana from one of the best American authors writing today.
Good read... S. Hunter is better than this.......2006-07-29
It was good but I know S. Hunter can do better. One thing I have to say is that noone writes better about a man fiddling a gun than S. Hunter. His writing is such that reader can feel the trigger on your fingertips and smell the gun powder.
If you already are S. Hunter fan, pick it up. If you haven't read S. Hunter book before, start off with Dirty White Boys or Point of Impact.
Even Swagger cannot save the weak story.......2006-06-25
Cuba in 1953 - a Mafia-run world of vice, gambling, sex and drugs. Of course police and the government all get their share out of it. Only the young revolutionary Fidel Castro might be the next threat to the corrupt Cuban government. Therefore the Soviet Union sends a highly experienced veteran agent to support Castro. To counter the CIA sends in Earl Swagger with a single goal: to kill Castro.
The story development is pretty slow and did not really grip me. Unlike former books I did not want to stay up late to finish it. The reason is obvious: the story is not convincing and has two really big flaws right from the start:
1) We all know that Castro is very much alive today. So you know that the mission will fail (for whatever reason).
2) If you read other Earl Swagger books before then you know that Earl is no cold-blooded killer. Therefore the basic idea does not work at all. The concept of Swagger turning into an assassin is just not "Swagger-like".
There are some Western-style like shootings in the book that are typical for the author and Earl's skills are fun to follow as usual but they cannot make up for the otherwise pencil thin story.
A great quote from Earl Swagger to support my thoughts: "No, I am not planning nothing except to get the hell off this place. It was a mistake ever coming. I have been shot at in too many hard places to die in a gutter in a city I don't know, for reasons I don't understand." Absolutely correct! The author should have followed this thought and should have let Swagger stay home! And I still do not understand why he wrote this story...
Further aspects that kind of spoiled the fun for me:
This time Swagger meets Fidel Castro. And Meyer Lansky! (Who is next? Young J. F. Kennedy?)
In "Hot Springs" Swagger knocked down Ben "Bugsy" Siegel. This time it is Hemmingway who is on the receiving end of of Earl's fist. (Again the same question: who is next?)
It starts to get a bit ridiculous.
Therefore even if this is a Swagger book which (normally) puts it way above the average book almost automatically, it is not one of Hunter's best works. Actually it is by far the only boring book with either Earl or Bob Lee Swagger in it! (So far there are 7.)
With "the day before midnight" (1989) Hunter already proofed that he does not need any Swagger character to write a fantastic page turner. Maybe it is about time for the author to invent a new hero and let Swagger rest in peace?!
Book Description
This is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of the extraordinary Castro brothers and the impending dynastic succession of Fidel's younger brother Raul. Brian Latell, the CIA analyst who has followed Castro since the sixties, gives an unprecedented view into Fidel and Raul's remarkable relationship, revealing how they have collaborated in policy making, divided responsibilities, and resolved disagreements for more than forty years--a challenge to the notion that Fidel always acts alone. Latell has had more access to the brothers than anyone else in this country, and his briefs to the CIA informed much of U.S. policy. Based on his knowledge of Raul Castro, Latell makes projections on what kind of leader Raul would be and how the shift in power might influence U.S.-Cuban relations.
Customer Reviews:
Not much about Raul.......2007-09-09
This book is mostly about Fidel. There are only two chapters that hone in on Raul. Even Latell, who surely knows more than he could reveal in his own book, didn't reveal too much. He avoided the Bay of Pigs. He didn't say much about Cuba's interference in other Central and South American countries.
Still, it's a good read for laymen wanting to know the basics about Castro and Cuba. Who will take over the island once Fidel dies? Even Latell could only speculate, mentioning a few top ministers from the brothers' group (Raulistas).
Although I didn't gain much insight about Raul, I did learn interesting tidbits about Fidel: the entire clan were illigitimate. Fidel himself has his girlfriend (and their children) set aside. That both Fidel and Raul have a deep hidden side should be no surprise. After Fidel gave the reigns over to Raul in August 2006 there were rumors that Raul would be a ruthless dictator worse than his brother. That hasn't occurred.
Lots of insight.......2007-09-08
Excellent book. Well written and full of insight. Few have the depth and breadth of knowledge that Latell demonstrates in this book.
After Fidel badly written.......2007-03-14
After having read a number of books on Fidel, I found Latell's book badly written, and worse than that, full of conjecture. The other reviewers who claim that Latell is not biased are way off base. Latell's distaste for Fidel is evident on every page. He also borrows quotes from other books. If you want to read a good book about Fidel, one which Latell obviously borrowed from heavily but then added his own interpretations, read "Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel".
AFTER FIDEL provides all the historical and psychological analysis needed for an informed consideration of modern Cuba's future........2006-12-11
AFTER FIDEL: THE INSIDE STORY OF CASTRO'S REGIME AND CUBA'S NEXT LEADER is an important assessment given Fidel's recent health issues: it provides both a political history of Fidel's regime, an analysis of his approach and impact, and new information on his brother, their family life, and how Raul is growing more powerful. In analyzing Fidel and Raul Castro's relationship and evolving influence on Cuban history and culture, AFTER FIDEL provides all the historical and psychological analysis needed for an informed consideration of modern Cuba's future.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
More Bio of Castro than Discussion of the Aftermath.......2006-09-04
This is a well written bio. No histronics, no preaching, no selling of a viewpoint. The author is a former CIA officer and current teacher of the Cuban Revolution at Columbia U. He credits his sources by name, noting each person's relation to the events, which is welcome for the layman. While the title implies that the book is about "After Fidel", this topic comprises less than 1/4 of the text. While to predict the future, you need to know the past, the subtitle works better.
Latell defines how Castro, through extraordinary intellect, a sensitivity to competition and a lack of moral restraint was able to take over a small island country and make it his fiefdom. He was a svengali to his brother, Raul, who's unacknowledged skills were necessary to Fidel's rise and continued dominance. Raul, like the rest of Cuba, is compelled for pyschological and practical reasons to cater to Fidel's paranoia.
Raul ascends to head the military by demonstrating his loyalty through leading ruthless prosecutions including that of a good friend and confidant... a popular and successful general... who's crime was to "dis" Fidel in a private conversation. Unlike Fidel, Raul has a modicum of conscience regarding this particular execution. Raul had been known to have shown some humanity at least once before, in visiting his father while the revolution expropriated the family homestead. Raul is not seen in public and the author says he's an alcoholic. If Fidel were to die today, w/could the 75 year old Raul be the Deng Xiaoping of Cuba?
The situation of Lina (Castro's mother) and her children (Fidel, Raul + 5 others) living in a shack while Angel (father) and his legal wife live in the comfortable "big house" is reminiscent of a pre-Civil War US plantation. Eventually the children are recognized by their father but, I presume, the psychological damage had been done.
Latell gives details of some things of which I was only vaguely aware. One was Casto's early obsession with "liberating" Puerto Rico. Another was the group of "non-aligned" nations, which through design Castro leads. Fidel and the entire organization are later sidelined by his necessary statement of alignment with the Soviet Union when it invaded Afganistan.
There are insights on the workings of international information systems. I didn't know that the lack of coordintion of the FBI and CIA was that FBI cases lead to criminal trials and CIA material, witnesses, etc. must be confidential. A Cuban mole, now in prison, provides information to Fidel, and disinformation to us, for 8 years. An anecdote about a mango tree illustrates, not only Fidel's inability to deal with criticism, but also how international information systems keep tabs on each other.
While there is little text on the eventual succession, I recommend this highly readable bio. I don't know how it measures up to the many other Fidel bios, but the author has an interesting and clear style. He is precise in his language and labels what is known and what is speculative.
Book Description
Havana . . . lilting rumbas, café con leche, sultry sea breezes. Sparkling white beaches by day, scintillating nightclubs after dark. This sophisticated, international capital was the crown jewel of an island paradise-until the idealism that fed the Cuban Revolution yielded a nightmare of soul-crushing dictatorship. Adios, Havana is a true account of romance and peril, adventure and patriotism. Fueled by love-love of family, of country, and of each other-a young couple must face the most wrenching of choices: remain in the country they cherish, lose the wealth and position their families strove for generations to attain, and watch their children grow up impoverished under a terrifying regime; or risk escaping with no money or possessions and leave behind all they have ever known to begin a new life in a strange land. A legacy to future generations, this memoir is intended to remind readers of the fragility of freedom . . . to describe the disintegration of a prosperous civilized society and offer counsel on how to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening in America . . . and to show how and why penniless refugees flourish in the land of the free-why anyone who resists oppression would be driven to tell his beloved homeland, Adios.
Customer Reviews:
Not literature.......2007-10-02
This book was recommended based on my Amazon reading and buying habits. Not sure why, though. It appears to be a self-published book...nice for the author's relatives or for people who fled Cuba. As literature, though, it just doesn't stack up. I'm disappointed that it was recommended via Amazon and will be more skeptical of those recommendations in the future.
Very Familiar.......2007-08-09
This book is a joy. Mr. Rodriguez' voice is loud and clear Cuban. In this book I reheard my mother's story. Thank You!!
An Inside look at Cuba.......2006-05-12
Before he and his wife flee Communist Cuba in the 60's for American freedom, the author paints vivid pictures of his beloved land and lifestye before and at the beginning of Castro's dictatorship.
Arriving in Miami, FL, they're eventually "adopted" by a Colorado church where they relocate to find housing and jobs. Because of their skills and eagerness to work hard, they become contributors to American society and earn US citizenship.
While the US is not perfect, this book helps me appreciate our various freedoms, and God's love expressed through good people. I recommend this book to those who take our democracy for granted.
~ Brenda Nixon, M.A.
Parenting Author, Expert, Speaker
A clear voice emerging.......2006-05-07
At a time when the Latin immigration experience is on everyone's mind and newspaper page, Andrew Rodriguez tells the story of his flight from Cuba in a clear, undecorated voice that rings true to the story. Immigrants come to America for many reasons, and Rodriguez tells a very personal story that might serve to educate a lot of people about why America is such a beacon.
Interested in Cuba and its people? . . . read this book........2006-02-26
Adios, Havana
Andrew J. Rodriguez
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Rd - 515, Denver, CO USA
www.outskirtspress.com
ISBN: 1598000489, $14.95, 262 pp. 2005
I specialize in reviewing Print-On-Demand (POD) published books, primarily because many reviewers in the "traditional book reviewing community" are not interested in them-regardless of how well-written or engaging. There is a strong resistance within this community, and a POD author would be fortunate, indeed, to receive any acknowledgment to his/her query-they simply ignore you. This, I'm certain, will change in time . . . helped along by quality, well-written, and touching memoirs such as this one.
I quote from the back cover: "Adios, Havana is a true account of romance and peril, adventure and patriotism. Fueled by love-love of family, of country, and of each other-a young couple must face the most wrenching of choices: remain in the country they cherish, lose the wealth and position their families strove for generations to attain, and watch their children grow up impoverished under a terrifying regime; or risk escaping with no money or possessions and leave behind all they have ever know to begin a new life in a strange land.
A legacy to future generations, this memoir is intended to remind readers of the fragility of freedom . . . to describe the disintegration of a prosperous civilized society and offer counsel on how to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening in America . . . and to show how and why penniless refugees flourish in the land of the free-why anyone who resists oppression would be driven to tell his beloved homeland, Adios." I could not have said it better.
The extraordinary beauty of Cuba and the Cuban culture, prior to Castro, come to life through this book, as do the difficult decisions these successful families had to make and the realities of being Cuban refugees in Little Havana, USA. The generosity of the American people to help . . . also comes to life. Andy and Margarita's beautiful love story weaves its way through history and binds it all together.
This book is well-written, well-edited, compelling and sensitive. The author has an educated vocabulary, uses unique similes and metaphors, and is so kind as to translate the Spanish phrases he uses throughout. In addition to this memoir, Andrew J. Rodriquez has authored The Teleportation of an American Teenager.
Reviewer: Kaye Trout of Kaye Trout Book Reviews - Copyright 2006
Book Description
In the year that Fidel Castro turns eighty, this is a fresh look at his life from childhood, through his dramatic conquest of power, and his extraordinary, charismatic leadership of Cuba over forty-seven years?including sharply focused ?takes? on the guerrilla struggle in the Sierra Maestra, life with the Soviet Union, involvement in Third World politics, and survival in the face of the hostility of the United States just ninety miles away. The author has researched archives from Havana, London, Washington, and Madrid and conducted original interviews with Fidel Castro's contemporaries, in Cuba and throughout the world, that provide fascinating insights into his personality and achievements.
Customer Reviews:
Fidel Castro, el comandante.......2007-02-13
Dear John, believe it or not, Mr Castro is a brave man who will be in the history books forever. He's not an ordinary man and he made something happen. He's fighting against the U.S. empire, an admirable act in itself. On the other hand, Bush will be remembered but because of the bad decisions he made, both as president and as a person. Heck, Mr Hussein was better than Bush and will always be remembered, now as a martyr. Another person that comes to mind is President Hugo Chavez. Lastly, dictators? How do you call a "president" that goes against his own congress and imposes his will on his people? Perhaps you'd check the latest polls.
Neatly presented case for the defence........2007-02-09
In a bibliographical note at the end of his life in pictures of the `Maximum Leader' the controversial MP for London's Bethnal Green & Bow constituency notes the wealth of material on Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. As to why a further contribution to the already vast literature should be thought necessary, George Galloway states openly in his preface that he is `a partisan for Cuba, for its revolution, for its leadership, for its role in the world'. So in proclaiming his partisanship Galloway makes it clear that in this case there will be none of the biographer's customary distancing and objectivity. He describes briefly his own youthful political awakening and lifelong commitment to the socialist cause, and admits that his is no dispassionate `either-or' account of the Great Revolutionary's life. Fidel - the familiar first name is used throughout - is the living embodiment, his policies the practical realisation, of what the author holds sacred. By foregoing objectivity Galloway attempts to portray the man of flesh and blood, his human qualities, something on which he presumably feels previous biographers have laid insufficient emphasis.
The book's magazine-supplement style of layout and presentation distinguishes it from other more detailed accounts. Several quotations from Castro and other leading figures are highlighted in bold print, sometimes filling entire pages, while the many photographs, some previously unpublished, complement the various phases of a life of heroics and high drama told with a nice sense of pacing and proportion. The main points of an extraordinary epic are sketched from his childhood and family background through the first stirrings of revolutionary zeal, the assault on the Moncada Barracks, the meeting with Guevara and the consolidation of the 26th of July Movement before the final taking of power, the restructuring of Cuba against a background of US-instigated terror and assassination plots, the Missile Crisis, and Castro's role on the international stage as a champion of the Third World's cause. Aside from the main narrative are the contributions of six interviewees who are summoned, effectively, as witnesses for the defence.
Leader of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon notes how under Batista's rule the population as a whole had little trust in politicians, and the success of the revolution was down to Fidel's `uniting the people'. It was also down to his formidable skills as a military commander which Galloway prompts Ramiro Valdes, former Minister of the Interior, to elaborate on, while in the sphere of the arts Culture Minister Abel Prieto insists that their leader has no prejudices, not even against `decadent' western popular music! Some observations on the ever-present threat from the colossus of the north are made by Washington-based immigration lawyer Jose Pertierra and former US diplomat Wayne S Smith, the latter of whom resigned his post in protest at Reagan's deranged anti-Cuba policy. Pertierra, representing the Venezuelan Government, discusses the case of the vile Posada Carriles whose extradition to Venezuela from the US is currently sought in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane off Barbados. According to Pertierra declassified CIA documents show that the US Government ignored the Agency's warnings about the known terrorist's intentions. On a more encouraging note those of us who support the cause may take some comfort from the lawyer's statement that Miami's extreme right-wing émigré clique do not wield as much power as they like to think, and that ultimately the US Government will negotiate with Cuba however noisy and hysterical the objections raised.
Cuba's offer of doctors and medical supplies following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was predictably refused. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice (`Color Purple') Walker, the final interviewee, condemns the childish attitude of a US Administration that would rather bear old grudges than actually save lives. In fact throughout the book examples of Castro's magnanimity and forbearance are described which cast the enemy in a poor light. Despite the Bay of Pigs fiasco he acknowledged Kennedy's potential as an enlightened human being and politician, and thirty years later Clinton's hob-nobbing with some of Miami's worst elements provoked a similarly calm reaction. The routine demonisation omits to mention such details and nor does it explain why, even during the desperate economic slough of the early `90s, there was no `Ceausescu moment' for the supposed tyrant. (That there was no `Allende moment' either is explained by Castro's appointment of himself, post-'59, as Military Commander-in-Chief of the Rebel Armed Forces and the bringing to trial of the hard-core Batista remnant. On a visit to Chile in 1971 he is said to have had serious doubts about the newly elected president's naïve, ultimately fatal, belief in the army's neutrality.)
It will be said, with some justification, that Galloway stands so in awe of his subject that he inclines towards hagiolatry and therefore underplays some of the less palatable aspects of Castro's rule. For example, the proclamation in support of the Soviet clampdown during Czechoslovakia's `Prague Spring' is not mentioned, and the Stalinist persecution in 1970/71 of dissident poet Heberto Padilla, whose enforced, televised auto-denunciation was condemned at the time by Sartre and other prominent intellectuals, is passed over rather lightly. There are several sources which Galloway himself cites containing more information on these and other issues, for example Robert E Quirke's 800-odd page biography, an out-and-out hatchet job but of some value if read between the lines. Much preferred is ex-British ambassador to Cuba Leycester Coltman's balanced and generally sympathetic `The Real Fidel Castro'. I would personally also recommend Sheldon B. Liss' `Fidel Castro's Political and Social Thought' (Latin American Perspectives Series, No 13), a useful adjunct to Galloway's `Handbook' as it follows a similar partisan line although it does refer to the Czech events of '68 (and, incidentally, rules out of order Cuban `dissident' Armando Valladares whose fictions Quirke has swallowed hook, line and sinker.)
It is Galloway's contention, in effect, that history has indeed absolved Fidel Castro and is doing so once again with the `Axis of Good' partnership alongside President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Bolivia's Evo Morales. A recent piece in the conservative London `Spectator' (20/01/07) takes a very different view, but for those unacquainted with the facts of an extraordinary life and career this affectionate portrayal of the great survivor is as readable and engaging an introduction as any.
Average customer rating:
- Cuba through Fidel Castro's eyes
- Fidel , por delante y por los costados
- Un libro muy completo...
- Fascinating, Revelatory, Highly Enjoyable.
- Fidel Castro Biografia a dos voces
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Fidel Castro: Biografía a dos voces
Ignacio Ramonet
Manufacturer: Debate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0307376532
Release Date: 2006-07-04 |
Book Description
El 13 de agosto el enigmatico dictador cumplirá sus 80 años en esta tierra. En
Fidel Castro: Biografía a dos voces, Igancio Ramonet, sociòlogo, teórico de cultura, periodista y una de las voces más representativas del movimiento altermundista, ha logrado desvelar —tras semanas de intensas conversaciones- las claves de la Revolución cubana a través de la biografía humana y política del último «monstruo sagrado» de la política internacional: el polémico Fidel Castro. Testimonio excepcional y análisis histórico, este libro es una auténtica «biografía a dos voces»: la memoria oral del comandante.
¿Cómo fue su infancia? ¿Dónde y cuándo se forjó el rebelde? ¿Cómo eran sus relaciones con Che Guevara? ¿Estuvo el mundo al borde de una guerra nuclear durante la llamada «crisis de los misiles»? ¿Cuántas veces han querido asesinarlo? ¿Qué impresión le causó el papa Juan Pablo II cuando visitó la isla en 1998? ¿Por qué crtica tanto a Felipe González y a José María Aznar mientras alaba la figura del rey Juan Carlos? ¿Qué piensa de la globalización neoliberal, de la guerra de Irak y del presidente Bush? ¿Por qué las autoridades cubanas arrestaron a unos setenta opositores no violentos en marzo de 2003 y aplicaron, ese mismo año la pena de muerte a los secuestrados de una lancha? ¿Existe corrupción en el régimen? ¿Es el socialismo en Cuba realmente «irreversible»? ¿Hacia dónde camina la política y la economía de la isal? ¿Que ocurrirá despues de Fidel Castro?
El exhaustivo cuestionario de Ignacio Ramonet —más de cien horas de entrevistas y de inéditas revelaciones- es al tiempo un recorrido apasionante por la controvertida figura de Fidel Castro y un formidable relato sobre el pasado, el presente y el provenir de la Revolución.
Customer Reviews:
Cuba through Fidel Castro's eyes.......2007-07-16
I appreciate very much the book, in original language. It gives the backstage of a big part of Cusa's hystory. The parts that I believed where the one's where Fidel Castro is remembering his life. When he was a children, in an ancient and poor country, where he had the oportunity to make bigger his natural instinct deploring the acts against the human right.
From this pages comes out a incredible part of Castro, made of sensibility, believe in equality, friendship. A complete different look on what we are used to know him.
Also all the Cuban's Revolucion comes out like a big and strong believe that peoples had to help the cubans to grow up and take his own identity.
Fidel , por delante y por los costados.......2007-03-11
Exhaustive and perhaps exhausting interview of Fidel. Fascinating questions in relation to salient issues of human rights and wrongs in Cuba. A rather astonishing intellectual dexterity in response to salient political concerns.
A truly remarkable work that allows for discerning skills and capacities of a knowledgeable and persistent political figure.
The accompanying DVD and what it reveals about childhood of Fidel and contemporary Cuba...so intriguing!
Un libro muy completo..........2007-02-20
"Fidel Castro:Biografia a dos voces" es un excelente libro que merece traduccion en ingles para aclarar dudas y prejuicios del publico americano sobre este controversial lider. A pesar de su avanzada edad y estado de salud, Fidel Castro presenta muy claramente todo evento desde la Revolucion Cubana, su relacion con el Che Guevara, y el presente y futuro de su pais. La conversacion entre el autor y Castro es presentada de manera que uno se siente que esta en el mismo cuarto con ellos durante la entrevista. Un libro muy entretenido.
Fascinating, Revelatory, Highly Enjoyable........2007-02-16
Let us hope that one day, even under the burning climate of the Bush regime, we will see "Fidel Castro: Biografia A Dos Voces," published in an English translation for those who do not speak Spanish. But for bilengual readers like myself, this is the best book available in a long time on the life and times of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Ignacio Ramonet has done an amazing service by documenting in great detail through many hours of interviews the life, ideas and dreams of one of the most controversial, influential world leaders of the past century and the early years of this one. This should be the definitive book for anyone wanting a detailed analysis of what exactly are the ideas behind Fidel Castro and the revolution he ignited a half century ago. This is also a valuable book because it is the only real book on Castro that goes into Cuba's influence on today's Latin America and leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. Castro recounts in stunning detail Cuba's role in helping bring Chavez back to power after an illegal, U.S.-backed coup sponsored by Venezuela's rich elites and radical right ousted Chavez for 48 hours. Castro recounts how Chavez's daughter called Havana to report that her father had not resigned as the coup plotters reported, but was overthrown and held prisoner. It was Cuba that relayed the information to major media outlets so the world could know of the crime that had occurred in Venezuela against her elected government. Ramonet takes us through Castro's childhood to his days as a passionate law student beginning to join the liberation movement to free Cuba from foreign domination of it's resources, market and culture. There are wonderful moments of memory dealing with the Revolution and Castro's friendship with icon Che Guevara. For those suckered by Fox News propaganda, Castro here reminds us that Cuba was the first nation to condemn the September 11 terrorist attacks, and eventhough Castro is opposed to the war in Iraq, he concedes that Saddam Hussein was a thug and much of his attitudes contributed to opening the door for Bush's imperialist war. The picture we get here is not of some vicious tyrant as the radical right likes to paint anyone with different views, instead we get the thoughts and ideas of a world leader who has changed much of Latin American history forever. There is little the current Bush regime will be able to do to curve the rise of socialism in the Americas, "Fidel Castro: Biografia A Dos Voces" is a perfect information tool to know how those roots were planted and what socialism really means. Castro's mastery of language is impressive and his careful, detailed analysis of world leaders, events and policies is impressive. His words are worth reading, especially in these times when blind imperial rage threatens to distabalize the Middle East if not the world. Here is one of the best books to come out of the Spanish market in a long time.
Fidel Castro Biografia a dos voces.......2007-01-12
Excellent. I read the Spanish version. Is a book that you have to keep for future references!!
Book Description
Against All Hope is Armando Valladares' account of over twenty years in Fidel Castro's tropical gulag as a result of his philosophical and religious opposition to communism. He gives a picture of the Cuba that he lived in and tells of how his deep Christian faith kept him from abandoning hope during the most evil treatment.
Customer Reviews:
Makes Shawshank seem like a Club Med.......2007-10-15
Another Amazon reviewer got it right when he wrote that this book should be given to all one's deluded friends sporting hip "Che" T-shirts. This eye-opening, stomach-churning account of the author's 22 years in Cuban prisons, the conditions of which make Shawshank seem like a Club Med, demolishes the romanticized memory of "freedom fighters" like Che and exposes the lie that Castro's Revolution created a socialist paradise. And it highlights Communism's inability to understand or erase one of the most important traits of human nature: our hunger for individual freedom and personal dignity.
Valladares wastes no time plunging us into a hell Dante himself could barely have imagined - on page one he is abducted in the middle of the night by the political police on trumped-up charges (having been denounced, he feels, by a jealous coworker for his disapproval of Castro's embrace of Communism), and before his prison odyssey is over, he endures and observes the worst extremes of totalitarian repression. The tension and the drama never let up, and often reach the breaking point. The litany of sadistic human rights abuses goes on page after page, every page; the degree of physical and psychological cruelty is so incomprehensible as to nearly defy belief. And yet Valladares and others maintain an almost superhuman strength of character and will to live that are inspirational and humbling. Amazingly, there are even flashes of humor and an ultimate triumph in this maddening and disturbing memoir.
Against All Hope is one of the most gripping books you will ever read. It has a compelling social conscience and an inspirational message of hope, faith, courage, determination, and even love, and it will leave you with a changed perspective on yourself and the world.
Cuban paradise.......2007-07-05
Give a copy of this book to all your friends wearing Che t-shirts. After so many descriptions of beatings and hunger strikes, you become numb to the next ones. I recall the AI campaigns in the 70s-80s to send letters and postcards to the Cuban and Soviet embassies just to remind them that the world was watching. Sadly today AI has degenerated into just another wacko outfit. The UN comes in for a beating of its own in this book, as it just sat back and closed its eyes, passing resolutions against Israel and other nonsense instead of putting pressure on Cuba. This continues today with Zimbabwe, NK, and others.
Take a look at "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" for a look at the same song, different verse.
A conscience's prisioneer life in Cuba........2006-03-19
I read this book, translated to the portuguese, here in Brazil, some years ago.It's a book about the decades, who this Castro's victim was under prision in Cuba.A nightmare's life and for more then two decades.
The failures of this book really exists.At first, the author don't tells you nothing about cuban revolution.In fact, never there existed a battle in cuban revolution.Fulgencio Batista simple scaped, without a single shoot.A mafia's man, whithout a single drop of moral or courage.This was really the true Fulgencio Batista.
At second he doesn't tells you nothing about the sucess of castrism in latin America and the catholic church "liberation theology".Having nothing of liberation and nothing of theology, the catholic church in latin America became a marxist organization.
A Great Chronicle Of Castro's Achievements .......2006-02-19
Castro has now ruled across the terms of 10 US Presidents. The secret of his longevity is not his popularity with the Cuban people, but rather his ruthless suppression of any dissent or competition. Valladares provides a keyhole view into this world of true terror and depravity.
Behind the warm white beaches where libbies from around the world find paradise there exist prisons where the brutality is only equaled by that of Stalin, Saddam, Mao and a few others. Any yet, like the American press' refusal to admit the terrible atrocities of the Soviet Union, these are happening in our back yard.
Those who claim to be against abuse of prisoners or the imprisonment of those whose only crimes are peaceful protest or political unreliability should take an evening to read this book.
It is not a comforting book and evening reading may lead to sleepless nights for the routine horrors of Castro's prisons are the stuff of nightmares. Without assurances of its validity, this book reads like fiction in that it is difficult to conceive that so much could be inflicted on another human who poses no threat.
Highly recommended
should be read alongside orwell and wiesel.......2005-11-14
This is a great book. It should be given to every sap and sucker who somehow finds merit in Castro's Revolution. Valladares chronicles the absolute repression at the core of Castro's regime. The torture and executions at La Cabana and Isle of Pines prisons are among the most brutal and extensive cases of barbarism any government has ever devised. The next time some Oliver Stone or Michael Moore type tells you about Castro's achievements such as a "high literacy rate," give them this book. And remind them that this is one book you'll never see in Cuba, or in an American college classroom that romanticizes Castro's oppression. This is the real "Animal Farm," folks: a powerfully written nightmare of tyrannical cruelty and the deep spiritual resilience needed to pull through.
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.
Book Description
Compelling and vivid, this memoir presents an intimate portrait of Castro’s Cuba through a wide-eyed and eager boy growing up in the 1960s. At the naïve age of 10, Luis M. Garcia, embarrassed by his anti-revolutionary parents, pledges his allegiance to Lenin, Marx, and the mythical Che Guevara, knowing that this is the only path to become a better revolutionary—and to get out of school early. Told with a detailed intimacy and a gentle humor that conveys the richness and warmth of Cuban life, this memoir illuminates the uncertainty, fear, and political force that tore families apart as Castro sought to destroy capitalism and establish Cuba as a world superpower.
Customer Reviews:
A shared journey..........2007-05-07
Almost forty years ago my wife escaped from Cuba as a young child, with her parents and younger brother. Since then, she has often recounted the trauma of this escape, and the struggles her family faced in rebuilding their lives in Spain - and subsequently here in Australia.
As she read this book she was astonished at the uncanny similarity between the author's experiences and those of her own family. Luis's story rekindled many distant, yet defining, memories, sights, smells, and feelings. To learn that her own story has been 'shared' and now 'told' (almost exactly!) was both a surprise, and perhaps more importantly, a visible comfort.
There seems to be a growing amount of misinformation about the Cuban people today, but as someone who has heard this true story (for over twenty years now) I recommend this narrative as a clear and accurate part of the "true story" of Cuba. The horrors, fears and terrible emotional abuse revealed here may shock some readers, but they are NOT exaggerated. (My wife's father almost died in the Cuban labour camps after seeking permission to leave.) People who experience REAL trauma rarely embellish 'their story' - because sympathy without understanding does not bring true healing. (There's a big difference between emotion and community.) A glipse into the author's own sense of community is seen in moving dedication of the book - "to those who choose to live in exile."
Luis's style is warm and engaging; he has a sharp eye for those little details that "set the trees swaying" in a narrative. He is also a shrewd observer and recorder of human nature - with an almost 'Dickensian' ability to highlight those easily-overlooked character traits that define individuals. I remember my wife laughing as she read his vivid account of that delightfully Cuban "nothing is impossible" attitude. She read the passage, smiled with recognition, and said, "That's EXACTLY how they are."
Excellent Companion to Waiting for Snow in Havana.......2007-03-01
Luis M. Garcia is a gifted Cuban-Australian (you read that correctly, Cuban-Australian not Cuban-American) author. In his book Child of the Revolution we see what it was like to grow up in the 60s in Cuba. Since it's told from the perspective of a young boy, the story is reminiscent of the excellent book "Waiting for Snow in Havana" by Carlos Eire. Where the books are different is that Eire saw the changes from pre-Revolutionary Cuba to Revolutionary Cuba and describes them in great detail. Garcia, on the other hand, was born in 1959, the same year Castro took power, and thus had no knowledge of that pre-Castro Cuba other than what his parents told him. In fact Garcia describes that period in his life as "a battle between Castro and my parents for the mind of an 11 year old." With this book and his blog Luis M. Garcia proves that Castro's critics aren't just in Miami. Cubans have been scattered around the globe thanks to Castro's brutal dictatorship.
Highly recommended.
Book Description
In Broken Paradise Cecilia Samartin offers heart wrenching insight into the tender balance between hope and grief that shapes the immigrant heart and exposes the struggles of everyday people amid political turmoil.
Cuba, 1956: Cousins Nora and Alicia are accustomed to living among Havana's privileged class -- lavish dinners, days at the beach, dances, and dresses.
Their idyllic lives take a turn for the worst after Castro's rise to power. Food becomes scarce, religion is forbidden, and disease is rampant. Alicia stays behind while Nora emigrates to the United States and struggles in an unfamiliar land. Both of their identities are challenged as they try to adapt to the changes forced upon them.
The situation in Cuba deteriorates and Alicia is beset by bad fortune, while Nora painfully assimilates into middle-class U.S. culture. Her heart, however, remains in Cuba. Letters between the cousins track their lives until Alicia's situation becomes so difficult that Nora is forced to return and help. But what she finds in Cuba is like nothing she has ever imagined.
Broken Paradise is an extraordinarily powerful novel about passion, love, and the heart's yearning for home.
Customer Reviews:
As good as that other summer blockbuster..........2007-06-14
I read this book immediately after finishing Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and can honestly say that I enjoyed it just as much. The tragedy that is Cuba is heartbreaking. I have a new understanding of the people who risk their lives and leave their beloved country to come to America. Samartin wrote a beautiful, lyrical, magical novel. Kudos to her!
An Impressive Literary Debut Devoted To The Cuban Revolution's Legacy.......2007-03-19
Cecilia Samartin's "Broken Paradise: A Novel" is one of the most impressive literary debuts in contemporary mainstream fiction that I've had the pleasure of reading. Its vivid, emotionally visceral tale of two cousins tragically separated during the 1959 Cuban Revolution's bloody, violent aftermath may be one of the most riveting explorations of humanity dealing with adversity since the original publication of Frank McCourt's best-selling memoir "Angela's Ashes". But I think most readers will identify more closely with Isabel Allende's splendid fiction, than Frank's superb literary memoir, and indeed, Cecilia Samartin is a fresh, newly minted Latin American writer worthy of comparison to Allende. Moreover, like Allende, Samartin has drawn extensively, from her own family history in telling such a beguiling, poignant tale. On a more personal note I am indebted to one of Samartin's editors, Amy Tannenbaum, for bringing her splendid literary debut to my attention.
Samartin offers a lyrical, quite descriptive, portrayal of middle class life in Havana, Cuba in the years prior to the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Her elegant prose and storytelling craft is at its best chronicling the extended family to which Nora Garcia and her cousin Alicia belong. She is almost as successful in describing Nora's sudden, unexpected departure to - and her new life in - the United States, as well as the unspeakable calamities which beset her relatives immediately after Fidel Castro's public declaration of his keen interest in and enthusiastic embrace of Communism. Regrettably Samartin's impressive literary talents are greatly diminished in the final chapters of her engrossing novel, offering a structurally weak set of circumstances which will reunite Nora with her cousin Alicia, clearly demonstrating that Alicia's life has been far from idyllic in the new "worker's paradise" that is Fidel Castro's Cuba. However, her rather conventional means of resolving loose plot ends ultimately doesn't dissuade me from regarding Samartin's novel as an impressive literary debut from an important new voice in Latin American literature. Surely Samartin's magnificient, elegant prose and fine storytelling is destined to win her a devout band of fans, who will be as eager to read her next novel as I most certainly am. I have no doubt that hers will be regarded as one of the most important literary debuts of this year.
Stunning story.......2007-03-09
Author Cecilia Samartin was born in Havana, Cuba in 1961 in the midst of the revolution. Her parents emigrated to America while she was a baby, and Samartin grew up in Los Angeles as a fully bicultural, bilingual American. In this her first novel, Samartin writes about her homeland, gracefully describing both the island's glory days and its devastating collapse after the revolution.
Samartin tells the story of two cousins, Nora and Alicia who grow up to lead very different lives. Alicia's exotic beauty makes her the center of attention, sometimes to Nora's dismay and sometimes amusement. The cousins are inseparable until Nora's family leaves Cuba for exile in America.
As Nora leaves, her family's maid, Beba, asks her to only show her "ghost heart" to the United States, hoping this will protect Nora's real heart so that she never forgets her identity or beautiful homeland. And although Nora doesn't completely understand Beba, she never forgets that simple request.
The cousins exchange letters throughout the years. Nora's speak of her education and her struggle to bring her Cuban heritage into her American life while Alicia's letters describe the delicate situation in Havana, her husband's arrest and her baby's illness.
It soon becomes clear that Alicia is also ill, and when she can no longer care for her family alone, Nora returns to Havana. What Nora finds in her hometown breaks her real heart, and here is where Samartin's gift for writing truly shines. Every place Nora remembers is in shocking disrepair, Alicia's health is quickly failing, and her niece, Lucinda, cannot receive needed medical treatment. When Nora and Alicia reunite with Beba, the three of women work together to protect Lucinda and, ultimately, to carry the young girl to America.
Throughout Nora's entire journey, Samartin's narrative is so clear and emotional that you will forget this is fiction. Instead, you are transported to those terrifying days of the early Cuban revolution.
Armchair Interviews says: Your heart will stretch with Nora's and Alicia's as the story unfolds.
'Fear doesn't float...But courage ...not only floats, it flies.'.......2007-03-09
Cecilia Samartin blooms in the garden of new novelists as a rare and exotic species of flower, a gifted artist whose talent is mature, making it difficult to believe that BROKEN PARADISE is a first novel. Samartin bears watching: she seems to have the gifts of such authors as Isabel Allende and Carlos Eire among others - very fine company for any writer.
Samartin offers a story of two cousins - Nora and Alicia - who were born into status and money in Cuba during the Batista years, witnessed the Revolution led by Fidel Castro, and suffered the ultimate results of the changes that revolution brought to the citizens of Cuba: Nora, the pragmatic one, escaped to the USA to live in Los Angeles with her parents while Alicia, the beautiful one, stayed behind, falling in love with a revolutionary black man Tony whom she married and gave birth to a blind child Lucinda, caring for her daughter after Tony's disillusionment with the revolution lead to his imprisonment. The two cousins continue their bonded relationship via letters and through these letters we are able to visualize the gradual crumbling of life and sustenance in Havana, the extremes to which the ever-optimistic Alicia must submit in order to maintain life, and the manner in which the two cousins reunite in Cuba years later, a time when the conditions of the current life in Cuba sadly separate them forever.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote 'Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it': Samartin's gift is the ability to invite us into the lives of her characters and allows us to create our own memories of what we have been told. Samartin's writing style is a dichotomy of tone. When she is telling the lives of the girls and their wondrously colorful families and extended families caught up in the paradise that was Cuba, her language is apropos to the tenor and rhythm and illusion of life as a child speaks it. When the Revolution changes (or 'breaks') the paradise, the maturing girls speak with the reality of adults, able to perceive the realities of the changed land and psyches of the people. This movement from the child's voice to the adult's narration is subtle but secure and adds enormously to the credibility of the novel's flow. 'Some people sell their bodies and others sell their souls' Nora tacitly observes as she returns to her beloved Cuba of the past to care for Alicia now fading from disease (presumably AIDS) she contracted in her only way of providing money for her imprisoned husband and blind child. The needs for sustaining life meet the needs for preserving soul and it is this pungent message that Samartin weaves through her novel.
No matter what version of the 'change' in Cuba each reader may own, Cecilia Samartin invites us to revisit a paradise broken by a hopeful change from the Batista reign into the Castro communism. She paints her version with words in a way few authors can or have: Cuba is her native home, Los Angeles her adopted one. She is a very bright light beginning to glow in the literary world and we can only hope she is already at work on her next novel! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 07
A STUNNING DEBUT NOVEL..........2007-02-27
This is a beautifully written novel that held me spellbound. It is simply one of the best books that I have read. Rich in its imagery and evocative of a time gone by, the author paints a vivid picture of the Cuban experience, both before and after Fidel Castro's revolution. Steeped in nostalgia, the experience is seen through the eyes of two young cousins, Nora and Alicia, daughters of privileges in pre-Castro Cuba. Their story begins in 1956.
Nora and Alicia are just coming of age and enjoying all the benefits of a pampered lifestyle, when the world around them begins to shift, as the rise of Castro causes Cuba to irrevocably change. Alicia stays in Cuba with her family, as Alicia's father believes that Castro's story will be one of here today, gone tomorrow. Nora's father, on the other hand, feels the need to flee Castro's Cuba. Thus, the cousins are parted, as Nora escapes to the United Stated with her family, exiled from her beloved island.
What happens to Nora and Alicia is seen through a series of letters exchanged by the cousins over time. Nora struggles to fit into her new life in the United States, a stranger in a strange land, while Alicia tries to cope with the extreme hardships and problems presented by Fide
