 "Memorble and Endearing" | 2008-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1US6WZBA33QCB |
| I am married to a pedro pan kid/man Ovidio Fernandez now 58, and have read many books on the pedro pan saga. This one is the most memorable and touching of them all. I lost my copy in the katrina flood and have violated my promise,not to replace lost books, by purchasing this one beloved book. |
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 "Escaping Cuba" | 2008-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2G3U6AM951P6D |
Very good, ethereal account of Eire's time in Cuba before being sent to the US on his own at age 12 to escape Communist Cuba. Sad, funny, disturbing.
Ultimately, I think its mostly joyful, though. If you look at the photo of Carlos as a small boy, and as a 50-something Yale U. professor of History and Religion, the same tight-lipped smile and smiling eyes come through. The boy became the man, despite the worst, and some of these experiences do count as worst. |
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 "Not all its cracked up to be" | 2008-07-09 |
| - Reviewed By shatch45 |
I forced myself to finish this book. I say that because I have no idea what all these people are talking about. I LOVE to read- honestly, i probably read 10 books a month. Finding good books that you can't put down is my hobby. Not to say this book isn't good, because it is, but the good parts are so intermixed with the author's worthless drivel thoughts about NOTHING that you can't focus on the good stuff. I found myself skimming through entire chapters and i NEVER do that!
It IS a moving memoir about the Cuban Revolution and I like that part, but aside from that, I did not enjoy it. After reading the book, I know a TINY bit more about the Cuban revolution and ALOT more about this guy's hatred of lizards and his fear of his grandmother's house.
Some people may like it, just like some people like Picasso. That is what I would equate it to- a newer style of writing where the author thinks that the average reader WANTS to know every single worthless thought that runs through his head- and some of that may be interesting. But after the book, you definitely wonder if someone would buy your own book if you wrote down everything you were thinking about and disguised it under an interesting time in history. Just like Picasso, you think "I could probably do this on my own if I wanted."
Skip it. Buy something you can't put down because this is definitely not one of those! |
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| "Vivid portrayal of pre-Revolutionary Cuba" | 2008-05-09 |
| - Reviewed By staskorascal |
Eire is a master of practical prose and humourous metaphors. And this, his memoir of his once carefree days of childhood in Cuba before the Revolution, abounds in both. It was very enjoyable to read as the author vividly dipicted everyday life in Havana, from his quirky family life to his reckless escapades with his buddies. He really does make you feel, hear, see, smell, and taste what he did growing up. It's easy to be swiftly swept away by the author's personal and disarming style as he recounts the time he and his friends blew up one of those hateful lizards with a firecracker. Or the time his Catholic teacher warned him of immorality. Or how his elementary crush was horrifyingly brought out in public.
Despite these comical stories, Eire does carry a great deal of gravity, especially when referring to Castro in bitterness. His inside view of the horrors and bloodiness that accompanied the Revolution makes it painfully real to the reader. He creates an indignance against the ruthless dictator and sympathy towards the suffering Cubans. Thank you, Mr. Eire, for bringing these injustices with all their force to reality for us.
My only issue with this book is the careless and flippant way the author(a professor of religious studies at Yale) seems to treat God. He repeatedly uses Jesus' name and all the images in his childhood home as a subject of jest. And he tries (inadequately in my opinion) to explain faith with reason, something that simply cannot be done.
So go ahead and read or even buy this book, it will be well worth it and you'll enjoy it. Only keep your head on when you come to the religious parts.
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| "Waiting for Snow in Havana-Well Worth the Wait!" | 2008-03-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: AT2RTUZLE8VNY |
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
Waiting for Snow in Havana-Well Worth the Wait, March 11, 2003
By Jane Borderud (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy (Hardcover)
At long last, a book that tells the truth about how the Cuban Revolution affected Children whose only crime was being born in Cuba in the 1950's! We meet Carlos and his family on January 1st 1959. Carlos is 8 years old and is world is going to change dramatically and forever. Batista has fled and Castro is marching down the main street in Havana atop a Sherman tank. Within three years, life will totally change for Carlos and his older brother Tony. Eventually they will join the more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children leaving for the USA towards and unknown future. The adventures continue...and seen through the eyes of Carlos it takes on an almost magical quality. Wherever Carlos Eire takes us on this Magical Mystery tour there in never a dull moment...whether ducking whizzing bullets or picking flowers for his mother in the park with his friends, or playing in the backyard of a neighbor who has a live chimp as a pet-one is totally enthralled in this rich narrative. For anyone who enjoys seeing the world through the eyes of a child, sprinkled with the insightful and almost transcendent wisdom of someone who has experienced and survived a cataclysmic shift in personal and cultural identity, Waiting for Snow in Havana was well worth the wait!! Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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| "An Excellent Read" | 2008-01-06 |
| - Reviewed By billybudd22 |
| This is a beautiful book. I read it about 3 years ago when it first came out and it still haunts me. While it was written by one of the children evacuated from Cuba, that's really not the story. It's a story of Cuba and the people that lived there prior to and during the revolution. Funny, yet sad, heart-warming yet shocking, foreign yet hitting all too close to home. It's story-telling without peer. A great read. |
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| "Exhilarating and painful" | 2007-09-27 |
| - Reviewed By luis@tld.net |
I left Cuba -with my parents- at the age of eight in 1963. Although my exile experience was much less trumatic than Dr. Eiré's, his depiction of life in that place at that time, seen through the eyes of a child, awakened so many emotions, dormant in my conciousness for so many years! What some reviewers have deplored as aimless ramblings brings me as close as I will ever come to a long conversation with a lost childhood friend, with all the complicity of shared experiences. The familiar sights, the smells, the terrors, real and surreal -I still am both terrified and eerily fascinated by lizards, specially the Cuban anolí, which changes colors to match its surroundings, the magic all around me in those days, Catholic school, birthday parties, fear for your life, shameful mischief... I laughed harder than I had in years and also cried too real tears!
I visited Cuba about four years ago, to witness the death of a family member who meant very much to me during my childhood. Despite the tragic circumstances and the terrible destruction of my little town, I unexpectedly felt an overwhelming peace and sense of "home" which I would not have imagined until then, having left so young. I don't recall having slept better in many years before or since. I discovered that there is a part of our being that does not travel. I left it in Placetas when I went away and there it was, intact, waiting for me. And there it stayed again.
I thank Dr. Eiré with all my heart for having brought me as close as it can be to that profusely bleeding chunk of who I am, which will never be in my present address.
Another Cuban boy. |
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| "Hightly recommended" | 2007-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: AL3VNRBOQOQBL |
This book was Great! I believe every person who struggled to get to the US to find freedom would enjoy this book. Eventhough I came much later in life, i believe his accounts really hit home with what i remember.
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| "Lots of hype, but still a pretty good read" | 2007-07-18 |
| - Reviewed By daddiowen |
Wonderful delivery of characters throughout the book, but Eire's relentless weaving of timelines was distracting. It was almost incoherent or redundant at times, rambling from one period to another. I also had a little difficulty understanding the "wistful" invocation of philosophical and spiritual jargon throughout the book.
Despite the distractions, a good read for the first few hundred pages. Probably could have dropped a hundred easily. |
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| "Getting to know a Pedro Pan" | 2007-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By wmarnold |
During my career I have worked with and developed close friendships with several Cuban Americans, including two "Pedro Pans" - one of whom is currently a US Ambassador to an important European country. I could never quite imagine what life might have been like for them as boys in Cuba and how their lives were turned upside down. Their resilience has been an inspiration.
Eire's book, mentioned to me by a former high school English teacher, answers many of my questions far better than I could have hoped. It is a literary masterpiece that provides anthropological insights about the life of the privileged under Batista. Remarkably Eire does not whitewash this era - he makes it clear that the sons of Batista, of his chief torturer, and of upper class professionals enjoyed privileges unavailable to most. He admits to serial shop-lifting as a boy and the materialism that made birthday parties stressful events. But it came to a sudden end when Castro took power and banned Christmas, persecuted his opponents, and caused families to send their children abroad.
Over the weekend I had a conversation with someone whose family fled Tehran after the ouster of the Shah. Somehow her stories were evocative of Eire describing Cuba under Batista.
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