About this title: Carlos Eire remembers growing up privileged in 1950s Havana, an interlude that ends with Fidel Castro and the revolution. Eire delivers transcendent prose that details the Cuba he grew up with and the "many deaths" he experienced, including being airlifted out of Cuba in 1962 with his brother.
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Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780743246415ISBN:0743246411
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. May have remainder. New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 400 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780743246415ISBN:0743246411
Description: Good. Moderate cover wear with scuffing to edges and creasing. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780743246415ISBN:0743246411
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Previous owners name inscribed inside front. -, Trade PaperBack, Very Good / read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
"It is not hard to understand why Carlos Eire's memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana won the 2003 National Book Award for nonfiction. It is beautifully written in a poetic style that I cannot compare to anyone else's. His boyhood memories come alive with perfectly balanced doses of hilarity and poignancy and they are fascinating.
Carlos Eire was born in Havana in 1950 and left in 1962, one of fourteen hundred children who arrived in the United States without their parents, airlifted out of Fidel Castro's Cuba by Operation Pedro Pan. Eire and his brother were reunited with their mother three years later, but never saw their father again.
This memoir describes the tropical paradise that was the Havana of his childhood, the games he and his friends liked to play, the movie theaters, the ocean, the pools. Oh, and the lizards. Eire had a special fear and hatred for the lizards. Anyway, when Castro took over, absolutely everything about their lives was changed. Their entire culture was erased in a way that is hard to imagine, and it happened very, very quickly."
"This book made me realize how little I know about Cuban history. The author's well-described memories gave me insight on the "paradise lost" of the Cuba of his youth - the time before Fidel came into power - and the way life drastically changed for him and all Cubans during the Revolution. The transition into a communist nation was anything but easy - people stripped completely of everything they worked hard to have or to be. It made me contemplate "freedom" and the concept of "non-ownership" and the problems that arise from this as well. I'm curious to learn more about Cuba's history from the time of the Revolution to where they are at now, still with Fidel in power. Has the "spirit" of Cuba changed forever? And is it for the better?"
"As the son of two Cuban-Americans driven from their homeland by a tragic communist revolution, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In response to the constant pestering by my mother to read it, I finally picked up the novel, which was written by Carlos Eire, a man who not only has a great name but is also my mother's age.
The writing style of this autobiographical novel is quite unique. The chapters of Eire's book seem to jump non-chronologically from one childhood instance in pre-Castro Cuba to another and then at times to the more recent past, his life in america after the revolucion- rather, revoluTion, sorry. Despite all this "skipping around", as a reader I never felt lost.
Now about the story. This novel charmingly recounts the childhood experiences of a boy growing up in a Cuba before Castro, when a different tyrant, by the name of Fulgencio Batista, still held the reins in Cuba. This is a world ever influenced by the neighboring United States, but still unique. Uniquely tropical, uniquely sophisticated, uniquely Catholic, and uniquely mysterious. The activities of Batista's secret police force, and his other intimidating abuses of power create a constant uneasy feeling in the novel, like a storm looming in the distance, you know it's coming but want to ignore it at the same time.
True to all the stories I've heard of the exile, Eire faithfully and unapologetically recounts the events of his departure from Cuba after the rise of Castro. With the black and white television in his living room showing a constant line-up of political prisoners being executed by firing squad, we see a twelve-year-old Eire struggling with the reality that he will have to leave his homeland, never knowing when he will return again, if ever.
This novel, since it is actually written by a Cuban, impresses me with its account of the historical events. Here in the U.S., the situation in Cuba is always clouded in some sort of mystery and the full story never seems to be divulged. Some see the revolution as a deliverance from the corrupt Batista at the hands of Castro and the ever-popular revolutionary Che Guevara to a free-Cuba, a Cuba Libre! As it has been known... this is a lie.
The truth is, Batista was a murdering criminal and a corrupt tyrant. So is Fidel Castro. Castro and his right-hand man Che Guevara murdered thousands upon thousands of political prisoners without due process (think about that next time you see a t-shirt with Che Guevara's picture on it). These men aren't heroes, heroes fight for Truth and justice, and for the good of all, but these men fought simply for power, money, and fame. Eire captures these truths poignantly in this novel."
"This is an account of one young boys early childhood in Cuba just before Castro came into power. We see a young boy from the middle class with his older brother and their friends participating in all kinds of typical mischief. What interested me was how life changed with Castro: the executions, the loudspeakers broadcasting his speeches, the shortages of food and necessities, the seizure of property, and the confiscation of bank accounts - all in the name of the revolution. We see how families were affected, how parents would do anything to get their children out. Amazingly, this young boy came to the US where he lived in a series of foster homes, orphanages, and real poverty, yet somehow was able to make a life for himself. His brother did not fare so well. While his boyhood in Cuba is interesting I am more curious about his experiences in the US. Perhaps he will continue the story."
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