Ay, Cuba! : A Socio-Erotic Journey

Rating:
Summary: Blather
Review: Mr. Cadrescu's book shows neither much of an understanding of, nor a willingness to really see Cuba. He simply went there to write a book and did so: more than anything else, a weak confirmation of his already hard-held beliefs about centralized governments. The "poetry" he introduces each chapter with is truly blatersome filler. Mr. Cadrescu, going to Cuba with your friends and a translator to tell you what's going on around you just doesn't cut the mostaza. Nice try.

Rating:
Summary: tunnel vision
Review: the one star is for the few pages that were written while his mind was open.

Rating:
Summary: A superb travelogue of a society in the midst of collapse!
Review: The tragic state of cuban society is well demonstrated here. Codrescu reveals a warm, loving people with the ability to eek out a living under the harshest economic conditions. The revolution was to have resolved many of Cubas present day problems. Yet here, 40 years later, Codrescu shows how it has exchanged the poverty of some for the misery of all (except for the communist aparatchik).

Rating:
Summary: A Bird's-eye view of Cuba
Review: There is much to admire about this book. The photo's are interesting (if unspectacular) and Codrescu's take on Cuba is unique, given his Romanian communist background. But this is very much a book of "impressions," not scholarship. The author repeats erroneous cliches about Cuba (about how homosexuals are treated, for one -- see "Machos, Maricones, and Gays: Cuba and Homosexuality) without ever explaining or exploring them. He spends too much time on the colorful surface, i.e. santeria, cigars, all the available "pu**y." On the other hand, he's a talented writer, so if you've never been to Cuba and are planning to go, "Ay, Cuba" is not a bad place to start.