Adiós al cañaveral, diario de una mujer en Cuba Open Access

We all know about the ever-increasing output of books about Cuba and Castro. As the book review editor of the HAHR, I am in the impact line. Much is trash. Those a degree better we try to review with the help of able men. This book was, upon my first impression, ready for the trash can; then I changed my mind and was ready to ask someone to do the review. Since I had read a previous book of the author (a Chilean writer) dealing with Gabriela Mistral and liked it, I glanced at this book. In the end I read every page. It is, to my mind, the best book I have read about Castro’s Cuba. No other author has, with such reality and with such a powerful prose, recreated the drama of Cuba. She went to Cuba drunk with enthusiasm and she left it in mental pain. The slow but steady movement from ridiculous Castro fervor to utter disappointment is recreated in a brilliant way. The sketches of personalities of the revolution, the confusion of the revolution, Havana—the circus full of foreigners of the lunatic fringe (the author one of them)—are masterfully described. This reviewer thinks the book is great.