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Avg. Rating: 4.5
Waiting for Snow in Havana
I was reluctant about reading "Waiting for Snow in Havana" because I didn't want to read about Castro and how horrible it is in Cuba. But since a friend lent me the book I thought what the heck, I would read it. What a treat it turned out to be for me.
Carlos Eire writes about his childhood in the late 1950s and early 1960's in Havana, Cuba until he is exiled to the United States. He could have written a bitter and angry story, but instead he writes a poignant, hilarious and at times a sad memoir. Not often do I find my self laughing out loud while reading and I did with this book. I don't recall the real names of his parents, but came to understand the names he gave them of Louis VI and Marie Antoinette.
What amazed me is that in many ways that this upper middle class society in Spanish Cuba in the late 1950's and early 1960's wasn't that different from it was here in the USA; especially the experience of Catholic schooling. Certainly in summertime we would blow up apples with fire-crackers, they would blow up lizards.
It wasn't an idealized world that was instantly shattered when Castro comes down from the mountains. Instead he shows how insidious the change of government was from Bautista to Castro. At first they tried to adapt as well as they could and he conveys how it was by the loudspeakers in the street with Castro speaking every day and on the radio all time. Certain street people would disappear as well as street vendors. No more Catholic schools and that was fun for him because got to a coed school. His mother, Marie Antoinette realized she needed to get her children out of Cuba and she them to United States by themselves. Louis VI would not leave Cuba, but Marie eventually reunited with her children in the US. Eire doesn't write with bitterness, but he does show the anger and hurt that he encountered from this time in his life.
I ended up purchasing this book because the book I was reading got a little wet. It was my friend's husband's book and I didn't want for her to hear from her husband "but why did you loan out my book" and it comes back damaged. Also, I liked the book so much and I was telling my sister about this book and now I can lend my own copy (the slightly damaged one.). My friend is waiting for the Spanish version of this book, but I think she should just read this book now.
Refreshing and Poignant
I enjoyed the way this book was written straight from the thoughts of a kid and not merely as another political statement. The good, the bad, the bitter, the joyous, the sad...it was real to me.
Intersting and well written
I'm a communist, a supporter of the Cuban revolution and I loved this book. Unlike a recent reviewer I do not condemn this book because I do not hold the perspective of its author. I loved this book both for its literary beauty and the subject matter that it presented. I agree with much of the literary praise in these posts and will not attempt to add more. I will briefly address the subject matter.
Another recent reviewer pointed to a future Spanish translation with the hope that it might get into many hands on the island. I too would like to see this widely read, and discussed, in Cuba.
I'm not going to go into too much detail since a review on amazon must necessarily be brief.
The main point I would like to make is that the book does present a real perspective in vivid color. To begin to see this book objectively one might imagine reading a similar account of before and after the American Revolution from the perspective of a someone growing up in a Tory family in the Colonies, after having fled to Canada, ranting about John Adams and other troublemakers, who just couldn't leave well enough alone.
This being read in Cuba would illustrate the point. The book really does paint a damning picture of a minority of the population, the class of the elite, where the author's perspective was formed. The author himself paints a picture, and I think understands, why they were ultimately scorned and hated.
One incident is where the author, as a child, was traumatized by the prospect of turning black by virtue of eating certain foods. There is no indication it was the skin color per se, but the social status of a black, which was feared so deeply. And this at a very young age. One might tempted to commend the author for this except it was the revolution that he condemned that actually outlawed discrimination while we still had Jim Crow in the U.S.
It is ironic that his valued whiteness was reduced to being a `spic' upon entering the `democratic' U.S. after leaving revolutionary Cuba. There is no suggestion that the revolution would label him a `spic'.
The majority of Cubans living in Cuba, whether or not a communist, or even political, would see this from the perspective of their revolution. They would scorn any that held up that milieu of the author, while still in Cuba, as any positive example of who should lead society. It should be too difficult for most of us here to come to the same conclusion.
If this book is read objectively it will show a bit of the reason why the revolution was needed. Read the book, maybe it will interest you more about the real history of the Cuban revolution and the U.S. opposition to it.
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