10/09/2017
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.)
Cuba on the Verge: 12 Writers on Continuity and Change in Havana and Across the Country
Narrated by Frankie Corzo, Lorenzo Irizarry
Leila GuerrieroUnabridged — 9 hours, 11 minutes
Cuba on the Verge: 12 Writers on Continuity and Change in Havana and Across the Country
Narrated by Frankie Corzo, Lorenzo Irizarry
Leila GuerrieroUnabridged — 9 hours, 11 minutes
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Overview
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.
Editorial Reviews
[An] anthology of stupendously astute essays...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.” — Booklist (starred review)
“...This anthology captures much of the broad, surreal spectrum of experience possible on the world’s most complex and controversial island.” — Alex Mar, author of Witches of America
“These essays speak to and against one another, they cannot be politically aligned, and that is all as it should be - but what unites them is brilliant writing, a depth of intelligence, and a desire to pull us down from fantastic abstractions to the level of the human.” — Justin Torres, author of We the Animals
“[A] fascinating anthology . . . Not quite a travelogue, this appealing volume will nevertheless satisfy any Americans wanting to be transported into the lives and experiences of real Cubans.” — Publishers Weekly
“This fascinating collection of essays explores Cuba’s modern transformation, tackling topics from politics to music to baseball. You’ll find yourself both informed and entertained.” — Paste Magazine
“[An] excellent new anthology.” — New York Review of Books
This fascinating collection of essays explores Cuba’s modern transformation, tackling topics from politics to music to baseball. You’ll find yourself both informed and entertained.
[An] excellent new anthology.
These essays speak to and against one another, they cannot be politically aligned, and that is all as it should be - but what unites them is brilliant writing, a depth of intelligence, and a desire to pull us down from fantastic abstractions to the level of the human.
[An] anthology of stupendously astute essays...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.
...This anthology captures much of the broad, surreal spectrum of experience possible on the world’s most complex and controversial island.
...Admirably weaves the common and uncommon threads of a culture’s fabric into a complex whole, cohesive but complicated, replete with beautiful detail.
...Thoroughly captivating...The essays transplant you in time and place.
An engrossing glimpse into this island nation and its endless dichotomies.
Twelve terrific writers on twelve fascinating new aspects of an island that has never lost its power to enchant: What could be more captivating or more timely?
10/01/2017
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
2017-09-19
Cuba is on the verge…but of what?Argentinian journalist Guerriero (A Simple Story: The Last Malambo, 2017, etc.) brings together 12 writers to assess the state of Cuba today in these very personal essays. Six natives write from the inside, six from the outside looking in. Theirs is a somber take on the island country. Novelist Patricia Engel writes about "Mi Amigo Manuel," who works six days a week driving people around Havana in his classic American car. He succinctly captures the country's ennui in just a few sentences: popes and presidents come and go, "but for us, nothing changes. Here we are. Here we will always be….The same Cuba, the same ruta, the same struggle always." His pessimistic attitude echoes throughout the book. Even baseball, which is discussed a few times, has changed. Soccer has taken over. Cuban journalist/novelist Leonardo Padura reflects back on his youth and his passion for the game in the bittersweet "Dreaming in Cuba." Fidel's Castro's revolution took away the proud profession of baseball and turned it into an amateur sport, ending players' livelihoods. What Padura sees in the streets of Havana "is not a simple phenomenon of fashion or sports preference: it is a cultural trauma of unpredictable consequences for the Cuban identity." What one finds all over Cuba now, besides the shortages of basic items, are the jineteras, women who prostitute themselves, and the jineteros, men who play the gigolo for foreign visitors. In her shocking "Glamour and Revolution," Cuban poet and novelist Wendy Guerra notes that abortion is now the country's contraception, and as for the "female figure's relationship to Cuban heroes, leaders, and rulers, she isn't even in the background. She simply doesn't exist." As screenwriter and director Mauricio Vicent ironically puts it, for most, Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude is magical realism. In Cuba, it's a "deeply sensible and realistic novel."An affecting portrait of a country that is awash in poverty, sadness, and uncertainty.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173659231 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 12/11/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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