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1st out of 72 books
—
50 voters
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
by
Carlos Eire
In 1962, at the age of eleven, Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba, his parents left behind. His life until then is the subject of Waiting for Snow in Havana, a wry, heartbreaking, intoxicatingly beautiful memoir of growing up in a privileged Havana household -- and of being exiled from his own childhood by the Cuban revolution.
That childhood, unti...more
That childhood, unti...more
Paperback, 400 pages
Published
December 24th 2003
by Free Press
(first published January 1st 2003)
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In 1962 Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba-exiled from his family at age 11. The Cuban revolution took away his family, his beloved country, his friends, and, most importantly, his childhood. The memories of his Cuban life are an exorcisan and to tribute to a paradise lost: the island of his youth. The lizards, turquoise seas and sun drenched siestas are the heart of this memoir. After Castro ousts Batista music sounds like gunfire, Christmas is illegal, and the wait to...more
Jun 27, 2011
Joy H.
marked it as read-partially
Recommended to Joy H. by:
My town library's book club
Added 7/6/08.
So far, this book looks like it may be a winner for me. I'm enjoying the author's style of writing, very engaging, and sometimes very poetic.
Here's a sample from p.13: "The waves, those turquoise waves... lapping, lapping, lapping endlessly, eternally. Even in the worst of storms the waves were always a lover's caress, an untiring embrace, an endless shower of kisses."
NOTE: I didn't have time to finish this book. I had to return it to the library. I may pick it up again sometime. Ot...more
So far, this book looks like it may be a winner for me. I'm enjoying the author's style of writing, very engaging, and sometimes very poetic.
Here's a sample from p.13: "The waves, those turquoise waves... lapping, lapping, lapping endlessly, eternally. Even in the worst of storms the waves were always a lover's caress, an untiring embrace, an endless shower of kisses."
NOTE: I didn't have time to finish this book. I had to return it to the library. I may pick it up again sometime. Ot...more
This is one of those books I would never choose on my own but glad someone chose it in my book club. If I could I'd give this a 3.5 star rating, but it deserves a 4 over a 3.
This is a story about a boy who grew up in Cuba before Castro came into power and his childhood memories before Castro came into power, during and after. It doesn't follow his life chronologically throughout the book--it skips around A LOT. The author uses A LOT of metaphors etc, if you get overwhelmed from over use of descr...more
This is a story about a boy who grew up in Cuba before Castro came into power and his childhood memories before Castro came into power, during and after. It doesn't follow his life chronologically throughout the book--it skips around A LOT. The author uses A LOT of metaphors etc, if you get overwhelmed from over use of descr...more
This book was chosen by a local book club, and I love to read cross-cultural stories, so I wait-listed it, missed the book club meeting, and finally got the book. Kind of wish the library had lost it.
Maybe if I were male, I would appreciate the book a lot more. The bulk of the book is spent on the author's 8th to 10th years in Havana as a rich, spoiled, and pretty rambunctious boy. He got off on having battles with breadfruit and stones and peashooters, all five boys shooting for the bottom of a...more
Maybe if I were male, I would appreciate the book a lot more. The bulk of the book is spent on the author's 8th to 10th years in Havana as a rich, spoiled, and pretty rambunctious boy. He got off on having battles with breadfruit and stones and peashooters, all five boys shooting for the bottom of a...more
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From Publishers Weekly
"Metaphors matter to me, especially perfect ones," Yale historian Eire writes in this beautifully fashioned memoir, as he recounts one of many wonderfully vibrant stories from his boyhood in 1950s Havana. As imaginatively wrought as the finest piece of fiction, the book abounds with magical interpretations of ordinary boyhood events-playing in a friend's backyard is like a perilous journey through the jungle; setting off firecrackers becomes a lyrical, cosmic opera; a child...more
"Metaphors matter to me, especially perfect ones," Yale historian Eire writes in this beautifully fashioned memoir, as he recounts one of many wonderfully vibrant stories from his boyhood in 1950s Havana. As imaginatively wrought as the finest piece of fiction, the book abounds with magical interpretations of ordinary boyhood events-playing in a friend's backyard is like a perilous journey through the jungle; setting off firecrackers becomes a lyrical, cosmic opera; a child...more
Carlos Eire was born during the 1950s into a fairly well off family in Havana on the island of Cuba. The son of a judge, Carlos and his brother learned to expect special privileges that came from being the children of a well-respected and powerful man. But everything in his life began to change when Fidel Castro waged revolution and toppled the Batista government. In the early 60s, at the age of 11, he and his older brother were sent to the U.S. to keep them safe. They never returned to Cuba.
Wai...more
Wai...more
Full disclosure: The author of this book is a family friend, and although I wouldn't say that I know him well, I have met him a few times.
Some people have fascinating stories to tell. Some people are able to write well. A select few people have both interesting stories, and a flair for authoring. Carlos Eire is one of those people.
On its surface, this is a very simple book. It's about a story that most people are at least moderately familiar with. Fidel Castro leads a successful rebellion agains...more
Some people have fascinating stories to tell. Some people are able to write well. A select few people have both interesting stories, and a flair for authoring. Carlos Eire is one of those people.
On its surface, this is a very simple book. It's about a story that most people are at least moderately familiar with. Fidel Castro leads a successful rebellion agains...more
“The world changed while I slept, and nobody had consulted me.” Carlos Eire open his childhood memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana in a simply and beautifully profound way of indicating the theme of his book: Change!
Carlos Eire was born in Cuba in 1950. He was one of those fourteen thousands children, who fled Cuba to America in 1962 after Fidel Castro took over control of the government. Before reunited with his mother in Chicago in 1965, Carlos Eire had been through a series of foster home from...more
Carlos Eire was born in Cuba in 1950. He was one of those fourteen thousands children, who fled Cuba to America in 1962 after Fidel Castro took over control of the government. Before reunited with his mother in Chicago in 1965, Carlos Eire had been through a series of foster home from...more
I found this on the shelf at the thrift store. I picked it up because my new brother in law is Cuban, having left Cuba as a child. So when I saw Havana on the spine - I paid my eighty cents, hoping to satiate some of my new curiosity in all things Cuban.
Of course, Carlos lived in Cuba long before my brother in law. Carlos was a child who knew Cuba before Fidel, before the Revolution, which makes his story that much harder to read. He knew what he was loosing, having grown up in a very privileged...more
Of course, Carlos lived in Cuba long before my brother in law. Carlos was a child who knew Cuba before Fidel, before the Revolution, which makes his story that much harder to read. He knew what he was loosing, having grown up in a very privileged...more
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Another memoir, this one by a history professor at Yale who recounts his boyhood years in Cuba during the revolution. Being obsessed with Cuba myself, I found all the details about life among the privileged set of great interest. It was a little heavy-handed, I'm afraid. I would have preferred this one if he let the anecdotes stand on their own, but he seemed unable to resist underscoring all sorts of points that are very obvious. Little boys like to play with firecrackers, and then the bombs in...more
It is not hard to understand why Carlos Eire's memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana won the 2003 National Book Award for nonfiction. It is beautifully written in a poetic style that I cannot compare to anyone else's. His boyhood memories come alive with perfectly balanced doses of hilarity and poignancy and they are fascinating.
Carlos Eire was born in Havana in 1950 and left in 1962, one of fourteen hundred children who arrived in the United States without their parents, airlifted out of Fidel Cast...more
Carlos Eire was born in Havana in 1950 and left in 1962, one of fourteen hundred children who arrived in the United States without their parents, airlifted out of Fidel Cast...more
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It's hard to know how to rate this book on the author's childhood in Havana. I did NOT like the amount of profanity in the book. In fact, most books I'd have instantly put down that had this much. I think, in this book, the profanity was almost the author's way of trying to keep a little distance, keep out some of the strong emotion. So I just ignored it. It helped that a lot of it was in Spanish. I know the words, but they just don't always have the same shock value as your OWN culture's profan...more
I've been putting off writing this review because I've been unable to decide how many stars this book should get: 4 or 5.
Well, Internet, the wait is over. I figured if I was this torn, why not give it the benefit of the doubt and go with the higher rating, so 5 it is.
There were multiple occasions in this book when I laughed so hard I cried - Eire does an absolutely magnificent job of reliving his upper-class Cuban childhood, to the point that I kind of want to ditch mine and have his instead (an...more
Well, Internet, the wait is over. I figured if I was this torn, why not give it the benefit of the doubt and go with the higher rating, so 5 it is.
There were multiple occasions in this book when I laughed so hard I cried - Eire does an absolutely magnificent job of reliving his upper-class Cuban childhood, to the point that I kind of want to ditch mine and have his instead (an...more
As the son of two Cuban-Americans driven from their homeland by a tragic communist revolution, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In response to the constant pestering by my mother to read it, I finally picked up the novel, which was written by Carlos Eire, a man who not only has a great name but is also my mother's age.
The writing style of this autobiographical novel is quite unique. The chapters of Eire's book seem to jump non-chronologically from one childhood instance in pre-Castro Cuba to anot...more
The writing style of this autobiographical novel is quite unique. The chapters of Eire's book seem to jump non-chronologically from one childhood instance in pre-Castro Cuba to anot...more
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Wow, this was really interesting. Carlos Eire is a year or two younger then I am and he writes about
his childhood in Cuba. His father was a judge before Fidel took over, so he and his brother went to private schools etc. It is a kick to read about their childhood antics. Then Fidel came in and took over the country, and I learned alot about what really went on at that time. 14,000 kids were taken out of Cuba and put into orphanages and then into foster homes in the U.S. It was called Operation P...more
his childhood in Cuba. His father was a judge before Fidel took over, so he and his brother went to private schools etc. It is a kick to read about their childhood antics. Then Fidel came in and took over the country, and I learned alot about what really went on at that time. 14,000 kids were taken out of Cuba and put into orphanages and then into foster homes in the U.S. It was called Operation P...more
My dad is a Cuban refugee and was part of the Pedro Pan lift. He left Cuba with his older sister when he was 9. My grandfather was one of the chiefs of police in Havana and was imprisoned by the Communists. His friends were all shot ("paredon! paredon!").
I've heard stories of Cuba *before* Castro, but precious few. Carlos Eire's memoir of Cuba before his emigration to the states filled in the world for me in a way that I had never understood it. I found myself asking my dad questions about rock...more
I've heard stories of Cuba *before* Castro, but precious few. Carlos Eire's memoir of Cuba before his emigration to the states filled in the world for me in a way that I had never understood it. I found myself asking my dad questions about rock...more
Americans all know that for the past half century, Cuba has been ruled by Fidel Castro and that Castro put into place a communist regime. We also know that Cuba is an island close to the southernmost point in the continental US and that, for the most part, we may not travel there. What we tend to lose sight of is the drastic life changes that the Cuban people went through when Castro took power. In this memoir Carlos Eire recounts his childhood in Cuba during the late 50's and early 60's. Exiled...more
Through Eire's memoir, the reader vicariously experiences a childhood painfully interrupted by a political revolution. In this case, the child is growing up in Cuba in 1959, the year Fidel Castro comes to power. Writing decades later, the author skillfully uses humor and satire to camouflage the anger and grief he felt at being sent to the U.S. with his brother but without their parents, and his subsequent struggles. The uprooting was made worse because Eire's family had been well-to-do; he had...more
My ambivalence about this book, I think, comes from my personal empathic paradox. On one hand, I try very hard to understand the pain a little boy thrust from his parents and country feels. On the other hand, I have an empathic failure when I try to feel sorrow for a privileged rich kid whose privilege and fortune didn't last. Eire's memoir, while nicely written, suffers from heavy-handed judgments that aren't clearly delineated between Eire's interchanging personas of backwards-looking adult an...more
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Carlos Eire was about 9 when Castro's revolution took over Cuba, and he left at 11 for the U.S. without his parents to live in a an orphanage, then with foster families under a program to help Cuban refugee children until his mother was able to come to the U.S. By that time, he had become independent, or at least emotionally buffered, to withstand the trauma he'd experienced. After nearly 40 years making his way in this country, he painfully wrote this memoir of his childhood in Cuba and the imp...more
Interesting structure to this book, reads like a bunch of short stories written in a conversational tone--which could be a good or bad thing depending on the reader, because the book doesn't follow a chronological order.
Carlos Eire was born in Cuba and grew up during Fidel Castro's reign. He and his brother joined thousands of Cuban orphans sent to the U.S. His mother joined him later and his father, a judge in Cuba, made a decision not to join Carlos and his brother (something the narrator rese...more
Carlos Eire was born in Cuba and grew up during Fidel Castro's reign. He and his brother joined thousands of Cuban orphans sent to the U.S. His mother joined him later and his father, a judge in Cuba, made a decision not to join Carlos and his brother (something the narrator rese...more
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A very engaging memoir, and impressive coming from an author who had never written anything, as he says, "without footnotes." While not always well-controlled, the writing is often sharp and vivid, and in many places wildly funny. Eire seems to have an unusually clear recollection of what it's like to be a child, and as a result he writes kid-dialogue that's really convincing--a rare skill.
It helps, of course, that he has a fascinating tale to tell. I'd never heard of the Pedro Pan children befo...more
It helps, of course, that he has a fascinating tale to tell. I'd never heard of the Pedro Pan children befo...more
This book was an average read in that it had some pretty great parts balanced out with some pretty dull parts. The whole story is remembrances of growing up in Cuba pre-Castro.
The first half captured me-I thought the author did a great job of writing so I could feel exactly what he felt and did as a child. It was an enlightening and educational view of Cuba that I had certainly never heard before.
Towards the middle, the author starts slipping back and forth between childhood and present day to...more
The first half captured me-I thought the author did a great job of writing so I could feel exactly what he felt and did as a child. It was an enlightening and educational view of Cuba that I had certainly never heard before.
Towards the middle, the author starts slipping back and forth between childhood and present day to...more
It took me awhile to get into the flow of this book. In fact I didn't like it all that well at first. But I grew to love and appreciate the style, story, and beauty of this writing. It is an amazing story, told episodically, with sights, sounds and smells that making it a joy to read. I'd highly recommend this story of a Cuban boy's exile from Cuba at age 11, along with his older brother and 14,000 Cuban children. These children were sent to America with the understanding their parents would be...more
Take Frank McCourt fold in a heaping glob of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, sprinkle freely w/lots of bathos and pathos…bake it in the Cuban sun, and you have a “memoir” that reads like a fairy tale!! Fairy tales in my world are scary, they include evil (“a presence , real and cunning”), and hardship, but, if not resolved in a happy ending, fairy tales take you on an unsafe, exciting, adventure peopled by brave boys and girls.
Like Frank McCourt before him Carlos Eire, writes better than anyone from a...more
Like Frank McCourt before him Carlos Eire, writes better than anyone from a...more
Subtitled “Confessions of a Cuban Boy,” this memoir first caught my eye because of the great title, then because it was written by one of the boys separated from his family during the early reign of Fidel Castro, during the Operation Pedro Pan exodus, an attempt to save children of those deemed against the Revolution, those most in danger.
The book almost lost me when the author along with other little boys, cruel as children often can be, started torturing lizards, symbolic of much to come. I ex...more
The book almost lost me when the author along with other little boys, cruel as children often can be, started torturing lizards, symbolic of much to come. I ex...more
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This is the only memoire I've read by someone who lived through Castro's take over of Cuba. The author was 9 or 10-years old when the Revolution took place. By the time he was 11, Fidel was firmly in power, and his parents sent him to the U.S. where he knew no one. It took his mother 3 and a half years to secure an exit permit and join him, and he never saw his father again. It is a compelling portrait of the rich childhood he had, the adaptations he had to make as an exile, and how his Cuban cu...more
While reading this book in the late '90s, I realized that the neighborhood Carlos was taking about in Havana was mine, Miramar. I could not wait until the end of the book to track him down. A quick Google search found him teaching at Yale. I told him where I had lived and asked how close had his house been. He answered right back and it turns out he lived across Fifth Avenue from me and we played in the giant ficus trees on opposite ends of the same park!
As much as I enjoyed the book, for obviou...more
As much as I enjoyed the book, for obviou...more
Eire's memoir is utterly enchanting. His elegant and lively tales bring 1950s Havana to life. From boys-will-be-boys shenanigans involving lizards and fireworks, to a young man's hopes, dreams and darkest fears, a young Carlos quickly makes his way into the reader's heart.
Havana sparkles brightly in Eire's hands, a living-color Disneyland--colorful, sunny, glamorous and exciting--but turns grimly dark and threatening in Castro's shadow.
The book features quite a cast of quirky characters, not the...more
Havana sparkles brightly in Eire's hands, a living-color Disneyland--colorful, sunny, glamorous and exciting--but turns grimly dark and threatening in Castro's shadow.
The book features quite a cast of quirky characters, not the...more
I wanted to like this book--I really did!! However, the author's attempt at writing did not agree with me. His overly verbose descriptions of clouds, his constant pseudonym use for his parents, and his pompous attitude did not agree with me. I am very disappointed as I am looking for a good book on the history of Cuba and this is the second book on the topic that just left me disappointed. (I recently discarded "Telex from Cuba," a fictional book written about the same period in Cuba's history....more
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| Waitng for Snow in Havana | 1 | 27 | Dec 12, 2009 09:42pm |
