Carlos Eire
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy (2003)
Author: Carlos Eire
Genre: Nonfiction (Memoir)
Book Summary:
Carlos Eire tells the story of his life and the hardships he has experienced. He was born in Havana, Cuba into a wealthy family. His childhood was spent as a careless and contented boy who spent most of his time playing with firecrackers, killing lizards, and causing trouble with his brother and his friends. As they were enjoying a carefree life the country of Cuba was being turned upside down. Eventually, Carlos and his brother were exiled to America alone with nothing but two changes of clothes and each other. Carlos went from being a wealthy carefree boy in Cuba to being a poor and lonely boy in the U.S. who was spit on and called names. He went from a very high social order to the lowest at the young age of eleven. However, he overcame the these trials and earned a Ph.D. at Yale and is now a professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale.
Geographical Setting: Havana and various locations in the United States
Time Period: 1950s-present
Appeal Characteristics:
This 2003 National Book Award winner takes a personal look, sometimes through the eyes of a child, at the transformation Cuba has undergone under the rule of Fidel Castro. It is simply a chain of stories from the author’s childhood given a philosophical approach. It reaches topics such as poverty, discrimination, and communism. Despite the serious subjects, the whole story is told in a lighthearted and sometimes funny manner. There is an element of history; many historical events are mentioned that have to do with Cuba, America, Spain, and Russia.
Read-alikes: Finding Mañana by Mirta Ojito and Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas are also memoir of a Cubans who spent the beginning of her life in Cuba before being exiled to the United States. Cuba on the Verge : An Island in Transition by Terry McCoy is a collection of essays and photographs by Cubans, Cubans in exile in America, and Americans. The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Aviva Chomsky is a book that attempts to provide many positive and negative perspectives on many different aspects of Cuba from colonialism to present. Gail Godwin's Queen of the Underworld is a fiction novel about an American female reporter at the start of the revolution who becomes friends with a handful of Cuban exiles.
Red Flags: Strong political views, references to and vague descriptions of sexual molestation
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