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Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
 
 

Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy (Hardcover)

by Carlos M.N. Eire (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: The Free Press (1 April 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0743219651
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743219655
  • Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,227,642 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Carlos Eire's memoir of his childhood in Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy explodes off the page with the smells, sights, and sounds of the tropics. But the most interesting aspect of his story is the story of the Revolution from a boy too young to know exactly what's happening.

Just nine-years-old when Castro and his fellow revolutionaries overthrew Batista, Eire watched as relatives were arrested, property confiscated, and rights lost. Naturally, it was a confusing time for the boy, as his whole world was turned upside-down by factors both visible, such as militiamen, and invisible. "I woke up to the fact that something had gone awfully wrong with the world that day," writes Eire. "We stood there for a while, all of us, asking questions, complaining... it was the sheer shock of encountering a stupid rule that kept us there, loitering under the marquee." The rule? The movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was suddenly off-limits to minors.

There is no love lost between the author--today a history and religious studies professor at Yale--and the man he calls a "ruthless dictator masquerading as a humanitarian."

Waiting for Snow in Havana is a cry from the heart of a boy torn from family, country, and way of life. Eire was 11 at the time he was shipped off to the US to live with strangers, and the fire still burns in him at the injustice of it. This fury propels his memoir, which is by turns cloying, sentimental, repetitious, and meandering. (Eire can, and does, go on for paragraphs about the shape of clouds. Federico Lorca he is not.) But readers looking for insight into one of the century's most "successful" revolutions will come away from Waiting for Snow with a fresh perspective on a crucial period of Cuban, and world, history. --Shawn Conner, Amazon.ca --This text refers to the Paperback edition.



Independent on Sunday

'Rich and lyrical' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic insight to the real Cuba, 7 Nov 2003
Having been to Cuba earlier this year, I read this book whilst on holiday. You can see both sides to the story - the way property and possession were taken for the more affluent of society for what was meant to be for the good of the poorer people, although I am sure they never saw any of the worth. Having visited the museum of the revolution (now I might have been brain washed here so forgive me) you can understand why the revolution took place. Carlos Eire wrote this book in such a way that you know him and his family and you can empathise with them all. I was truely saddened when he and his brother where shipped off to a cold heartless America and saddened for him that he is unable to return to Cuba whilst Fidel is still in existance. I loved the book and I missed Carlos when I had finished it.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving Memoir, 7 Oct 2007
By M. A. Ramos (Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Carlos Eire wrote an extremely well written memoir. He write's about his childhood in Havana. He gives us vivid pictures of Havana at the time and of the colorful inhabitants of his neighborhood. The world of Havana through the eyes of a child.

The wide eyed wonder in which we see this marvelous world called Havana, makes us stop and wonder. Is this a memoir or novel. The writting of child like innocence is so real. How can we remember it. Of course, this is about Mr. Erie's childhood, during the 50's and 60's. So we also get to see the growing darkness and fear brought about by the great revolution brought about by Fidel Castro...and how all their lives were changed.

It will also let you see why so many Cuban's fled that beautiful island for the USA. Most hoping it would only be a temporary seperation from family and homeland. I not only understood what life was like both before and after Castro...I could actually understand the emotion he felt as a child. And now as an adult looking back upon his past. This is a great read.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Hermosa y intelegente, 10 Jul 2003
Waiting for Snow in Havana is a beautiful and lyrical book that gives true insight into what it was like to live in Cuba during the early days of Fidel's Revolution. This novel has captures the true essence of what it means to be Cuban and gives a deep understanding of the exile community in the States.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Waiting For Snow in Havana
'Waiting For Snow in Havana' is the disjointed memoir of Carlos Eire. Although it is marketed as a Cuban memoir, it is more about childhood in general, in a Cuban setting. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Spider Monkey

3.0 out of 5 stars Life of a young Cuban before and after the Castro takeover
An imaginative insight into the life of Carlos, who as a young boy in the late 1950's tells of his boyhood pranks and fun with his friends, and of his his art collecting father... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2005 by oswald232

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic insight to the real Cuba
Having been to Cuba earlier this year, I read this book whilst on holiday. You can see both sides to the story - the way property and possession were taken for the more affluent... Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2003 by bridget3009

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you wanted to know about the Real Cuba by a Cuban
Y

es- I admit it. I have read WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA and have returned to those days when I could finish a book at one sitting, not caring if that meant I had to read... Read more

Published on 29 Jun 2003 by janeborderud

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