Cuba: A Journey

by Jacobo Timerman

The author draws on his conversations with ordinary Cubans, students, intellectuals, and others to present a picture of a country burdened with human rights abuses, a suffocated civil society, and a bankrupt political system

125 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Jacobo Timerman was born in the Ukraine, moved with his family to Argentina in 1928, and was deported to Israel in 1980. He returned to Argentina in 1984. Founder of two Argentine weekly newsmagazines in the 1960s and a commentator on radio and television, he was best known as the publisher and editor of the newspaper La Opinión from 1971 until his arrest in 1977. An outspoken champion of human rights and freedom of the press, he criticized all repressive governments and organizations, regardless of their political ideologies.

Reviews

[Mac]

Picked up the book in preparation for a trip to Cuba. It looked interesting...and I made the most fatal mistake possible, I judged it by its cover (or back cover actually.) While Timerman may be considered a technically proficient writer, he's ridiculously boring, and keeps referring to obscure print sources to help make his point....which I don't think they really do.

Just never read this book. Even if you're going to Cuba. Even if you want to know everything about Cuba.

But do read this book if you want to stop reading a book after the first page.

[Beth Slucher]

Dated but evocative and ironic.

[Chris]

I absolutely no sense is this a travel book, although it makes a token show of being one. There are 3 or 4 interactions with locals and 2 or 3 car journeys, the rest of this very short book is interviews with journalists and writers about the state of Cuba in 1988.
I would love to read Paul Theroux travelling around Cuba in the 80s, but as a travel book in the classic travel style this is pointless

[Raquel Montiel]

Muy difícil de entender, seguir el guión de Jacobo es complicado, y más si no eres un experto en la materia.

Me sorprendió mucho la relación tan profunda que tenían Gabriel García Márquez y Fidel Castro.

Es interesante, pero me leería miles de libros de Cuba antes que este para poder comprenderlo mejor.

[Carol]

I found this book nearly unreadable. There were many times I could not figure out what the author was trying to say. I learned nothing about Cuba from it. It did have one thing going for it, though - I frequently have insomnia and this book put me to sleep a couple of times.