Cuba -- Politics and government -- 21st century. |
Cuba -- Economic conditions -- 1990- |
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Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent | 972.9 CUB 2017 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Fall River Main | 972.91 C962 | Stacks | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mansfield Public Library | 972.91 C | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... New Bedford Francis J. Lawler Branch | 972.91 CUB 2017 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Seekonk Public Library | 972.91 CUBA | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Taunton Public Library | 972.91092 G935C | 3RD FLOOR STACKS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Spanning politics and art, music and baseball, Cuba on the Verge is a timely look at a society's profound transformation--from inside and out
Change looms in Cuba.
Just ninety miles from United States shores yet inaccessible to most Americans until recently, Cuba fascinates as much as it confounds. Images of the Buena Vista Social Club, wild nights at the Tropicana, classic cars, and bearded rebels clinching cigars only scrape the surface of Cuba's complex history and legacy. As the US and Cuba move toward the normalization of diplomatic relations after an epic fifty-six-year standoff, we find ourselves face-to-face with one of the few places in the world that has been off limits to most Americans. We know that Cuba is changing, but from what and into what? And what does this change mean for the Cuban people as well as for the rest of the world?
Standing on both sides of the divide, twelve of our most celebrated writers investigate this period of momentous transition in Cuba on the Verge. These essays span the spectrum, from Carlos Manuel Álvarez's story of being among the last generation of Cubans to be raised under Fidel Castro to Patricia Engel's look at how Cuba's capital has changed through her years of riding across it with her taxi driver friend; from The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson (who traveled with President Obama on the first trip to Cuba by an American president since the twenties) on being a foreigner in Cuba during the Special Period to Francisco Goldman on the Tropicana, then and now, to Leonardo Padura on the religion that is Cuban baseball.
Cuba on the Verge is the definitive account of--and a unique glimpse at--a moment of upheaval and reinvention whose effects promise to reverberate across years and nations.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This fascinating anthology from journalist Guerriero (A Simple Story) gathers together reflections on life in Cuba written by both natives and outsiders. The subjects profiled in the 12 entries include baseball players, actors, jineteros (hustlers), Tropicana dancers, and, in the best chapter (by Princeton professor Rubén Gallo), the owner of a clandestine bookstore-cum-dog shelter and male brothel. What emerges from these portraits (most of them translated) is the resilience of the Cuban people, who, as Cuban poet Wendy Guerra writes, can "convertir el revés en victoria, as the revolutionary maxim goes-turn the setback into a victory." The collection places particular emphasis on the "Special Period," the roughly decade-long time after the Cold War when Cubans struggled with the loss of Soviet economic support. There are candid revelations about women's liberation and abortion rights, illegal cockfighting, and how being an artist "is the best paid profession," along with interesting observations on the reception given to visitors, notably President Obama and Pope Francis. Not quite a travelogue, this appealing volume will nevertheless satisfy any Americans wanting to be transported into the lives and experiences of real Cubans. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Since Obama's 2014 visit reestablishing ties between the U.S. and Cuba, American travelers have had the long-lost opportunity for direct exploration, but there are no easy answers, warns Argentinian journalist Guerriero at the start of her anthology of stupendously astute essays. Half are by authors writing from within Cuba, others by outsiders passing through, and only three were originally written in English. The view from the inside includes a visit by a young Cuban to his recently immigrated doctor father turned coconut-gatherer in Miami and an exploration of transitions (to what?) in a country where today everything is considered a turning point. Vladimir Cruz writes about costarring in Cuba's only Oscar-nominated film, Strawberry and Chocolate. Other contributors consider feminism within revolutionary socialism, Cuban baseball history, and jinetero, locals who sell companionship and sex to tourists. Moving outside in the second half reveals post-Obama politics, everyday Cuban lives, the quality-of-life divide between foreigners and locals, not-so-hidden secrets both mercantile and religious, the legendary Tropicana nightclub a quarter-century ago and currently, and a captivating Havana bookstore. Marked by doubt and contradiction, Guerriero's meticulously curated dozen essays offers an irresistibly beckoning window onto a nation just 90 miles from American shores, though far away in practice and culture.--Hong, Terry Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
CUBA ON THE VERGE Edited by Leila Guerriero. (Ecco, $26.99.) Twelve writers explore this moment of transition in a post-Castro Cuba, as it manifests in music, art and even baseball, the landmark julius caesar Edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub. (Pantheon, $50.) This tome brings together all the written works of the statesman and military commander, ft's mostly a series of accounts of wars he waged, from the Gallic War to the African War, which turned the Roman republic into an empire, should the tent be burning like that? By Bill Heavey. (Atlantic Monthly, $25.) A suburban dad who loves hunting and fishing, Heavey has been writing a column for Field & Stream for over two decades, and this collection ranges from a deer archery hunt to the time he crashed a 44-foot houseboat in Florida. Christopher hitchens: the last interview (Melville House, $15.99.) The always provocative Christopher Hitchens died six years ago, but his presence can still be felt. As part of its "Last Interview" series, Melville House pulls together some of Hitchens's greatest dialogues, each sparkling with intelligence and wit. three daughters of eve By Elif Shafak. (Bloomsbury, $27.) Shafak's novel takes place over the course of a dinner party in Istanbul on a night when terrorist attacks occur across the city. Through her main character, a wealthy socialite, Shafak, one of Turkey's most acclaimed authors, explores the many tensions that exist in a society struggling toward modernity. "I recently decided to read Cormac McCarthy's first three novels. This was, to understate it, an odd decision for this time of year. The world is bedecked in white lights, and my brain is filled with misshapen things. The books are by turns brilliant and exasperating, the orchard keeper, McCarthy's 1965 debut, involves two men, one of them a whiskey bootlegger, and a boy, connected in ways that are often willfully incomprehensible. The novel's who-what-when-where is a house deep in the woods with its lights out. His third book, child of god, is a far easier read; syntactically, at least. Its contents are grislier though, involving a deeply disturbed man-child who is described, on Page 4, as "a child of God much like yourself perhaps." That sentence becomes the book's central provocation as the man misunderstands, murders and defiles several people along his life's blind path. I'm halfway through his second, outer dark, as I write this. It involves a woman's search for her lost newborn, the product of an incestuous relationship with her brother. Happy Holidays!" - JOHN WILLIAMS, DAILY BOOKS EDITOR AND STAFF WRITER, ON WHAT HE'S READING.
Library Journal Review
Twelve writers, 12 stories-all focusing on change in Cuba. These essays, edited by journalist Guerriero (A Simple Story), offer little reflection on the aftermath of the 1950s Cuban Revolution but a great deal on the country at present and hope for the future following changes in American policy toward its island neighbor. From the passion of baseball in Cuba to the lavish nightclubs and casinos of Havana through the scarcity and harshness of the "special period" to a papal visit in 2014, here Cuba is exposed through the eyes of its people, Americans living in or visiting the country, and other visitors. The writers-journalists, novelists, a Princeton professor, and even an actor-give remarkable accounts of Cuban life. One man is introduced to Western goods he never knew-chocolate and tinfoil. The theme of uncertainty runs through most of the pages, including a taxi driver who laments that although popes and presidents visit Cuba, nothing changes. Many don't want to leave family behind so they stay and struggle in a place where even professionals earn just $30 a month. -VERDICT Recommended for all readers seeking to understand life just 90 miles off the U.S. Southern Coast. [See Prepub Alert, 6/26/17.]-Boyd Childress, formerly with Auburn Univ. Libs., AL © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.