The Island that Dared

by Dervla Murphy

Follows a family holiday in Cuba with Dervla Murphy, her daughter and granddaughters as they trek into the hills and along the coast, camping out on empty beaches beneath the stars and relishing the ubiquitous Cuban hospitality. A joyful start of a fully-fledged quest to understand the unique society created by the Cuban Revolution.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Travelogue, History, Politics, Book Club, Memoir

422 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dervla Murphy’s first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, was published in 1965. Over twenty travel books followed including her highly acclaimed autobiography, Wheels Within Wheels.

Dervla won worldwide praise for her writing and many awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and the Royal Geographical Award for the popularisation of geography.

Few of the epithets used to describe her – ‘travel legend’, ‘intrepid’ or ‘the first lady of Irish cycling’ – quite do justice to her extraordinary achievement.

She was born in 1931 and remained passionate about travel, writing, politics, Palestine, conservation, bicycling and beer until her death in 2022.

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing nicer than walking out of the library with a fabulous-looking book by your favourite author. You walk home at a fast trot, looking forward to putting your feet up on the table with a strong cup of coffee and this gem-to-be read on your lap. That was exactly how I felt with this book.

What a shock then to decide, about a sixth of the way through, that I would have to stop reading the book, and return it to the library! The first part of the book was thoroughly enjoyable, a lovely romp through Cuba with Dervla, her daughter and her three young grandchildren. Like Dervla they are all stalwart explorers, and they went tramping round the Cuban countryside with cheerful enthusiasm.

But then suddenly Dervla started whacking down stodgy chunks of Cuban history – thwack, thwack, thwack – even with espresso strength coffee I couldn’t hack it. In the end I decided to return the book to the library. For two days the book just sat untouched on a table. Then for some reason I decided to pick it up again and have another go. Well, thank goodness for that, because the rest of the book was utterly fascinating and infinitely readable.

Basically the book covers three journeys that Dervla made to Cuba - in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She is fan of Fidel’s, the people of Cuba, and the fruits of the revolution. It is seemingly a place of great ambivalence. Political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to mix with foreigners – all of these things seem severely curtailed. Yet there is so much goodness that has come out of Fidel’s vision for this island. Dervla with her hallmark ability to get to the bottom of things via talking to people, speaks to Cubans in Cuba, and also to Cubans exiled in Miami, (mostly Cubens hostile to Fidel and his politics), so we get a rounded picture of their attitudes.

Make no mistake though, Dervla really is a ‘Fidelista’ through and through – and the bias of the book is very much in favour of Fidel and the Revolution. I personally was more than happy with this perspective. My one concern was Dervla’s extraordinary levels of stoicism. Just because she was happy to put up with the major levels of discomfort that she often found on the island – how fair is this on the islanders themselves? It’s all very well for me to sit in my comfortable home and applaud the ethos expounded by Fidel, but I think I would have found it pretty tough to live in Cuba myself.

Having said that, the governments preceding Fidel’s were horribly corrupt, and the lives of the poor were probably infinitely worse than they were under Fidel’s governance. His commitment to the people at the bottom of society is his greatest attribute. I am curious as to what caused the hardship though – the trade embargo from America? The fall of the Soviet Union, which was heavily supporting Cuba (certainly the immediate effect of its downfall was a drastic fall in standards of living for the Cubens). Or perhaps the inherent pitfalls of a deeply socialist government, with extensive nationalization of industry and agriculture?

This book is utterly fascinating, and gives one a real soaking in Cuban culture and its people. Except for that one indigestible dollop of history the rest of it is fabulous. Highly recommended.

A complete hotch-potch of notes (mostly direct extracts from the book), for my own reference.

RATIONING

“The state run groceries (puestos) have bare shelves until supplies arrive, when people queue up for basic rations of rice, beans, and eggs….but there is always a daily litre of milk for the children.

To Fidel’s critics, permanent food-rationing proves how hopelessly Castroism has failed. In fact feeding all Cubans adequately (except during the worst years after the fall of the Soviet Union) has been one of its most remarkable achievements.

In 1950 (i.e., before the Revolution) the World Bank medical team estimated that 60% of Cuba’s rural dwellers and 40% of urban folk were malnourished…Cuba was then importing, mainly from the US, a lot of its food.

Hunger greatly strengthened popular support for the Revolution.

The US embargo, established in response to the revolution, caused dire food shortages, until the rationing system, established on 12 March 19652, ensured no family would go hungry.”

CDR SYSTEM (Committees for the defence of the Revolution)

“Fidel invented the system in 1960.

The president – who is not paid – of each CDR is responsible for about 300 citizens. This is called a ‘barrio’. It is his or her duty to find out:
How people earn their money
What they spend it on
Who does or doesn’t march in demonstrations
Who is absent from home, where they have gone, and why, and for how long.

We instantly recoil from such a system. Yet whether people are for or against Castro it seems to be agreed that Castroism could not have been so quickly and firmly established, and made to work so well, without the CDR’s energetic observing, organising and persuading (or bullying) of their barrios.

Nowadays, out of some eleven million Cubans, at least three million are CDR members.

The CDR is involved in:
Public Health campaigns
School enrolment and attendance
The National Bank’s saving campaign
Arranging study seminars.
Checking the quality of service in local shops
Acting as crucial links between municipalities and barrios (that last function helps to sustain Cuba’s vibrant version of participatory democracy).

CDR presidents also collaborate closely with the police.”

OFFICIAL APPROVAL NEEDED IN MANY INSTANCES WHEN LIAISING WITH FOREIGNERS

Only hotels with special dispensation to accommodate foreigners can do so. Private individuals too cannot have foreigners to stay without permission.
Lots of buildings like schools or businesses or universities can only be visited by foreigners who have been vetted first.

Dervla says “I reflected that a country vilified for so long, in the world from which I came, has every excuse for official xenophobia, or suspecting every foreigner of being a counter-revolutionary snooper. We in the generally unsympathetic West have created this situation; xenophobia doesn’t come naturally to the laid-back, warm-hearted Cubans.”

TRAVEL

Travel in Cuba is often incredibly challenging, mostly due to oil shortages. Hitch hiking is widely acceptable, often overseen by people wearing mustard uniforms, with armbands saying ‘Transporte’. Even small girls will hitch-hike – all of this is considered normal.

Dervla described two nightmare train journeys, and several bus and lorry journeys, with people packed in like sardines, often in immense heat. All sounded equally challenging.

AMERICA’S HOSTILITY TO CUBA

This is often quite extraordinary, and often channelled via exiled Cuban terrorist groups living in Miami – these are people who left Cuba during the Revolution, and who are deeply hostile to Castro, and want to unseat him. See Wikipedia “The Bay of Pigs”, and “The Cuban Five”. There were even two episodes of germ attacks – Haemorrhagic dengue was introduced into three regions of Cuba 1980, (its artificial introduction was later substantiated by a member of a Cuban exile gang) and in 1971 terrorists obtained from the CIA the African swine fever virus. Within six weeks half a million Cuban pigs had to be slaughtered to prevent an island-wide epidemic.


Extract from “Killing Hope” by William Blum.
“Cuba was subjected to countless sea and air commando raids by exiles, at times accompanied by their CIA supervisors, inflicting damage on oil refineries, chemical plants and railroad bridges, cane fields, sugar mills and sugar warehouses; infiltrating spies, saboteurs and assassins….anything to damage the Cuban economy, promote dissatisfaction, or make the revolution look bad…taking the lives of Cuban militia members and others in the process…organising pirate attacks on Cuban fishing boats and merchant ships.”

Time and time again, right across the board, America has shown hostility to Cuba. In Dervla’s eyes this hostility is vastly uncalled for and undeserved.

MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

These are outstanding – both on the ground with everyday treatment for ordinary people, but also in terms of research, and in terms of help offered to other countries. Dervla’s description of a psychiatric hospital is heartening.

“Cuba’s internationally praised Psychiatric Hospital near Havana, has about 2,500 beds and a staff of 785 psychiatrists, physicians and nurses. On its 155 acres some patients live in bungalows with flower and vegetable gardens cultivated as part of their therapy. The list of occupational therapies is long: painting and drawing, handicrafts, computer studies to assist memory training, music, psycho-ballet, theatre and sports. The hospital has its own theatre and stages frequent shows. It also has its own railway station for the convenience of family and friends….Children are encouraged because so many patients find it easier to communicate with them than with fellow adults. The hospital’s motto is “With love and affection one achieves more than with medicines”.”

CASTRO’S LOVE OF BOOKS

“His letters from the Isle of Pines prison (not written for publication) reveal an extraordinary depth and breadth of reading for a man in his middle twenties. Discussing books keeps him a happy prisoner – Shakespeare and Thackeray, Kant and Freud, Turgenev and Dostoyevsky, Descartes and Marx, Varela and Marti, Cervantes and Plutarch. From dawn to dusk he read, mentioning in a letter dated 18 March 1954, ‘I fell asleep finishing “The Transcendental Aesthetics of Space and Time”. Most of us would have fallen asleep beginning it….”

CASTRO’S IGNORANCE

Dervla: “I reflected on Fidel’s various writings, read over the past three years, and found myself regretting as do many ‘Fidelistas’, that he sometimes leaves himself open to ridicule by pronouncing on international matters of which he has a limited understanding. He hands his enemies a whole arsenal of weapons by, for example, sounding naïve (the EU), or wildly over-emotional (Serbia), or ill-informed (Tibet).

CASTRO’S WEALTH

“In June 2006 “Forbes” the magazine, rashly listed Fidel as a billionaire and the global media rashly circulated this misinformation.

The shrewd Fidel offered to resign at once if anyone could find a single dollar belonging to him in any financial hidey-hold in any country. When no such dollar appeared they had to admit that their guesstimate of Castro’s personal wealth was based on the assumed value of Cuba’s state-owned assets.”


JUSTICE (OR NO JUSTICE) FOR PEOPLE SEEN AS ENEMIES OF CUBA

The Revolution’s glory was tarnished in 1959 (or was it 1960?) by the execution of 400 of Batista’s most loyal and brutal military police – ‘Special Service’ torturers. Their trials in Havana’s sports stadium were shown live on TV.

In Santiago Fidel’s brother Raul supervised the machine-gunning of 71 soldiers.

When international outrage flared…Castro angrily pointed out “We are not executing innocent people or political opponents. We are executing murderers… Revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction.”

Later, Castro would imprison dissidents and counter-revolutionaries, or anyone for that matter who seemed to questions his politics. #


----------------------------------------------------------------------

A timeline for Cuba from the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/amer...

Book about Castro’s philosophy recommended by Dervla:

Fidel & Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto on Marxism & Liberation Theology

[Will Ansbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always admired Dervla Murphy’s travel writing. She’s as tough as an old boot: putting up with, and even searching out, conditions that would make a lesser traveller shrivel. And she didn’t change her style when she started taking her daughter along. Now in her seventies, she’s travelling with her three granddaughters as well. The first third of the book is about the five of them toughing it out through the lesser-known parts of Cuba, and it is as good and entertaining as her earlier books.

This was in 2005, and Murphy returned alone to Cuba twice more in the next two years. Here the book gets rather bogged down as there was relatively little actual travel but much recounting and regurgitation of great chunks of social and political history. Not that it is uninteresting, for she has a quite sympathetic yet fairly level-headed view of Fidel’s revolution, but it was pretty heavy going and not particularly well organized. The problem is that Cuba clearly isn’t an easy place to travel on one’s own – it’s officially discouraged, authoritarian bureaucracy is rampant, and Cubans have become nervous, not say hostile, when encountering lone foreigners in remote areas. All of this Murphy takes in her stride of course – she’s encountered far worse – but it does mean she travelled and described rather less than she expected to.

So, 5 stars for the first third, but only 3 overall because I really wasn't in the mood for political lectures

[Vasilis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit I did not particularly like the book. It often read like a pro-Castro/ anti-US gospel. I am a political scientist myself and I am used to reading political commentary. However, Murphy's point of view was far too biased as far as I am concerned. She is a passionate writer and one has to give her credit for that, but when one makes political analysis he/she has to be very careful. Politics is complicated and it does not make sense to reduce it down to a black or white opinion about things. Moreover, I bought this volume as a travel book to accompany me while I traveled around Cuba and I got tired reading constant political monologues coupled with extracts upon extracts from other books. Murphy seems to have forgotten that this is not a political treatise and has thus failed to retain the fine balance that is of great importance in travel books; being equally informative and entertaining.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dervla Murphy has always been a remarkable traveller but becomes even more notable as she continues her intrepid walks (if no longer so many bike rides) well into her ‘third age’. This book of her journeys in Cuba, undertaken when she was in her mid-seventies, is full of excursions on foot for several days along mountain trails, with poor maps and often non-existent accommodation, that would defeat most younger travellers. She delights at sleeping in the open air in her ‘flea bag’, and as result has many interesting contacts with locals, both human and animal. She also has several brushes with Cuban officialdom, bent on the almost impossible task of impeding her adventures or forcing her to have a guide. She almost always outwits the bureaucrats, and usually gets help from people she passes on the way, in the friendly Cuban style, even though her Spanish is limited.

As the book develops she gets more passionate in her defence of Cuba’s uniqueness, due in no small part to its revolution and the political system which has now endured 54 years. While she can be very critical of some aspects, and freely admits that she couldn’t bear to live permanently in a place where freedom to travel and freedom to write are both constrained, she also points to Cuba’s many strengths. Not least is Cubans’ inventiveness and ability to survive when times are hard, virtues that may well mean that Cuba is better equipped than most countries to cope with the pending environmental crisis that faces us all. She enthuses, for example, about the ‘organoponico’ vegetable gardens and the ways that government agricultural policy shifted away from Soviet-style chemical farming to cheaper, healthier and more productive organic cultivation.

I read The Island that Dared on a recent third visit to Cuba. It was both an inspiring read, one that opened up new information and ways of thinking about Cuba, and one that also broadly fitted with my own views about Cuba’s past, present and future. Those who think Cuba will be a roll-over for big capital in a few years time should read Dervla Murphy’s timely warning that it might not be that simple.

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here, Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy makes three trips to Cuba while in her mid-seventies. Murphy's approach is to speak with everyone she can and record what they say. She's interested in the people and how they tell the country's story, and this produces a varied set of perspectives.

The way the author declines to dress her account up in drama, unlike many travel authors, is worthy of praise - but it also made quite a long account feel a bit dull in places, hence the three star rating.

Murphy's broad support for Castroism is clearly strong, a badge she wears throughout the book. That doesn't mean she attempts to whitewash over the usual criticisms of the country's government, but instead puts them in context - historically, and also by describing the many benefits that the islanders have experienced since the revolution.

This book is full of information you won't find in the usual writing on Cuba, and for providing this counterbalance, I feel it was well worth reading.

For example, this book taught me that Cuba does in fact have elections, that these are much more in the spirit of direct democracy than anything we have in the West, that ballots are free and fair, and that voter turnouts are in the high nineties.

I was shocked to read just how far the US has gone in its attempts to destroy Cuba in the hope of effecting regime change. Many of us know about this in vague terms, but through Dervla Murphy, I learned much more of the detail.

Although it is difficult to know whether to side with Murphy in her overall conclusions favouring the revolution, it does become clear that almost everything written about Cuba in the Western press is effectively no better than propaganda designed to isolate and destabilize the country. Very informative, and very sad.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dervla Murphy describes three journeys in Cuba in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Because of her character and the way she travels she meets and/or makes friends with lots of people from different backgrounds. This gives you amazing insight into the way how people live. As always, she's curious and (most of the time) very respectful.
In this book I had to struggle to keep up though. I think I was lacking basic knowledge of the history and politics of Cuba and Dervla likes to go into detail, so she's lost me few times on the way!
Also, as Cuba is not very supportive towards individual travellers, Dervla didn't really get to walk as much as usual. Quite often she tries to but gets captured and sent back. All's interesting, but for me, her walks into (from foreigners) mostly untouched areas is the best about her travels.

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this book, having been to Cuba last year, I was interested in what other people thought and how they felt. It started well, however, sadly I think only a third of the book is original material by the author. She copies lengthy pieces from other books, historical accounts and diaries in a desperate attempt (it seems) to get the word count up. If I wanted to read such lengthy pieces of copying, I would read those books directly so I can interpret them myself. I would also buy a history of Cuba book if that's what I was looking for. Sometimes it gives a bit of context but a good portion of the book is history and background and the not the travel book and insight I was looking for. Bitterly disappointed.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anti-American screed with travel narrative thrown in - if that's your thing, you'll love it!

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really is a must-read for anyone interested in Cuba. Alongside reams of historical, political and cultural information you enjoy Dervla Murphy's warm humour and brutally honest observations of everyday life. She's a Fidelista with an eye for the warmth, morality and egalitarian spirit of Cuba but she doesn't flinch from cataloguing the broken infrastructure and repressive political scene, nor does she downplay the havoc and destitution wreaked by the vindictive US blockade. I pray she returns to document how embracing free market economics transforms this unique island. I laughed, seethed and wept.

Here is one of my favourite vignettes. Dervla is in Havana and it's a slightly chilly wet day.

"Are the Cubans neurotic about slight temperature variations? That day I saw many dogs wearing coats, not the sort of tailored canine jackets fashionable in Kensington/Chelsea but improvised garments: men's underpants, children's T-shirts, women's tights and, memorably, two oversize bras encasing an extra-long dachshund. My woolly, white terrier friend... was now guarding his doorstep swaddled in toweling tied on with a string... Concerned Habaneros were stopping me in the street, sympathetically exclaiming "frio" - then being astonished on feeling my bare arms to find me not frio."

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Island that Dared: Journeys in Cuba, Dervla Murphy, the tough-as-nails, slow traveler from Ireland details 3 trips that she took to Cuba between 2005 and 2007. It's extremely fascinating as she details one trip with her daughter and grand-daughters, and two more alone. In between stories of traveling across the beautiful landscape and her meetings with locals, she gives a detailed history of Cuba, long before the Revolution, through the Revolution, to present days.

It's biased and sympathetic towards Cuba. I think she does a great job of dispelling much of the propaganda dolled out by the United States as well as giving a clear perspective about how the people of Cuba view their country, the Revolution, and how Cuba should move forward. It's timely in that it echo's the other instances when the United States has meddled in the affairs of other countries and installed puppet governments. As we deal with our own questions of foreign governments meddling in our elections, it pulls back the covers and questions our own understanding of the state of the world.

I enjoyed another book by her titled "South from the Limpopo" in which she details her travels across South Africa by bicycle in 1994 and thoroughly enjoyed that. The Island that Dared solidifies my perspective of her being a travel writer that should be read.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of independent travel in Cuba in 2003, 2005 and 2007 as well as an extremely detailed account of its history. The best portions are the descriptions of everyday life and conversations with Cubans since people seem to open to Dervla Murphy since she is so 'of the people' herself. This gives the reader real insight into the thinking and way of life of the people who have lived through 'the Revolution' and continue to live in Cuba. Most interesting, especially for Americans, is learning how the Revolution happened and how life's evolved from the Cuban point of view instead of the b.s slant we Americans have been fed about Catroism - you get this not only from the people but also from extended quotes from actual documents. The history and politics sometimes get a bit too detailed and so slow especially if you're reading this primarily as a travel book... and the first 20% in 2003 when she visits with her grandchildren made me want to give up since it seemed the book was going to be more like what I did on my vacation with the grandkids supplemented by wikipedia, but the second two trips make up for that weakness in the beginning.

[Mark Franklin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Cuba and like the author, I avoid tourist hotels when there and have never visited any beach resorts. I also agree wholeheartedly with Ms Murphy's political and social views on this subject. Even so, I found this book exhausting and uninspiring. Just when I was beginning to feel something and lose myself in her writing she would suddenly jump to another century with some historical anecdote that interrupted the flow of the book. This constant jumping back and forth between centuries, inserting endless cold facts, figures, names and place names caused my eyes to glaze over. As for her hikes, it would have been helpful to have a basic map attached to each walk to give some idea of the route taken - not that I imagine many people would choose to retrace her steps. I never quite understood why she chose these trails since there seemed little pleasure gained compared to the discomfort suffered. Altogether, a huge jumble of information that has left me more confused than enlightened.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read many of Dervla's books and love the early ones. I gave up on her some years ago as the later writings became more political and I found them a bit of a slog. I was prompted to have another go by
mention of this book in her recent newspaper obituary. Dervla, Rachel and the grandaughters go to Cuba.

Three trips to Cuba, the second two solo, there's lots of history and politics (meh!). A generous 3*s for old times sake although I skimmed a bit through the non-travel bits.

If you've never read her I'd suggest starting with nothing later than 'Cameroon with Egbert'.

[Geraldine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is well researched, and provides a good overview of travels in Cuba at the defined moments in time. Dervla Murphy really wants Castroism to have worked, so there's a lot of emphasis on the people/ supports which are satisfactory, but disregard of issues and challenges for the people and the country.

[Georgina Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dervla Murphy seems to have actively sought out discomfort, and her account of Cuban society is so much better than anything else I have read about the island. I really enjoy her later, more political, books and this was a real education.

[Robot72 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can' finish this book,the story with the three kids is true travel and better,the rest have too much politics.

[Ciara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Glad I read it before the current travel restrictions as the wanderlust would have been too much.

[Chris Wilby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't finish it, it got so technical and boring for me.

[Maria Magdalena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much background info, politics, makes the reading rather dry.

[Neil Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this was a test of my endurance. I certainly learned a lot about Cuba’s politics, but overall felt it confused travelogue vs polemical critique of US/Cuba relations.

[Anna Brunskill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this account of various trips around Cuba. Clearly Dervla Murphy had done her research well, and there is a lot of interesting contextual and historical information interwoven with her experiences. She does not hide her feelings or thinking about American influence in Cuba (bad) and the impact of the revolution (good), and I was amused at one point to read her criticisms of another author whose work was driven by his political perspective. Pot, kettle? If you can put that slight hypocrisy aside, this is a wonderful, if polemical, account of a fascinating country.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have tremendously enjoyed a couple of Dervla Murphy's previous books and settled myself in for a good read with transcendent descriptions and delightful adventures far off the beaten path. I was rewarded for the first 109 pages as Dervla traveled with her daughter and three young granddaughters deep into parts of Cuba where tourists never venture. But the remaining 300+ pages covered Dervla's deep admiration of Fidel Castro and her anger with the US. I have to admit that I was shocked by some of her documented proof of CIA meddling in Cuba's affairs and she caused me to see some of the US' activities in a different light. However, I got her point and didn't need it drilled into me over and over and over and over again. It boils down to the fact that I was expecting a travelogue and not a leftist political treatise. She is an amazing writer and I would read any of her travel books.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book had some similarities to running a marathon or a very long bike ride. The first bit goes really quickly and you feel fresh and enthusiastic, then you slow down and eventually it all becomes very hard work and you just want it to end. The first section, where Murphy visits Cuba with here daughter and three young grand-children is absolutely charming, fun to read and you have to admire the adventurous nature of the three generations. Later she visits on here own and although the sections on her own travels are interesting page after page on the detailed history of Cuba wore very thin, and I just wanted reach the last page. It is well written and well researched and she certainly is a tough lady. I now know know much more about the 'Cuban Experiment', probably far more than I ever wanted to or needed to know. Would I recommend it? Well...only if you are studying Cuba's history.

[Robitito · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take one fiercely outspoken, slightly irascible Irish grandmother and transport her to Cuba with a daughter and two young granddaughters for an entertaining and enlightening trek around Cuba in the mid-2000s.

The first part of this book is a wonderful companion to any Cuban holiday, as Dervla Murphy travels off the beaten track and sees much more of the real Cuba than your average tourist. The book is well written and entertaining, though the second half gradually transforms from an adventurous travel book into a something more of a political rant. Murphy's understandable frustration and anger at the effects of the US economic blockade of Cuba are coupled with a curiously uncritical analysis of the Cuban system, despite several unpleasant brushes with the petty bureaucracy and everyday frustrations which the system allows to flourish.

Overall, I would say this book is well worth the read, even though the second half is rather more hard-going than the first.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can a journalist be impartial? Is it fair to extoll the virtues of local rules and then go out of your way to flaunt them? Like many things, the answer is often unclear. A self-declared Fidelista, she decribes an interesting and complex Cuba. The U.S., or at least the CIA and corporate interests come out with no moral high ground. I found this quote from Marti in 1885 particularly striking, "Capitalists in exchange for laws that are favorable to their undertakings, support the party that offers those laws...Both parties govern equally abusively wherever they govern, for both are slices of the same people; since upon no major question do they differ, but are divided equally...Elections are quite costly. The Capitalists and large companies help the needy candidates with their campaign expenses; once the candidates are elected, they pay with their slavish vote for the money laid out in advance."

[Don Smith]

I was delighted to read about Cuba from the viewpoint of a left leaning, widely traveled and read woman. If even a part of what Dervla reports is true, most of what we read about Cuba is crap. I found her observations of local participatory democracy revealing--it seems that the Cubans have a great deal of control over many of the institutions that everyone deals with on a day-to-day basis. Institutions that average Americans have virtually no control over in America. I was unaware of the achievements of Cuban doctors and health professionals not only in Cuba but in dozens of other countries.

[Darlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

On page 240 and making a slow but steady dogpaddle through this travel writer's personal adventures and researched historical facts during her three visits to Cuba in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She strives for authentic reporting which does not always make for an exciting read. I am stopping at page 280 of this 400-page travelogue. I admire the pluck of this adventurous older woman who often backpacks solo, walking great distances on serendipitous routes, enjoying a chance to swim, requiring few amenities, eating what the universe provides (but willing to settle for a beer and a box of raisins), and who takes great pleasure in human connections along her way.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read most of Dervla Murphy's books, but I must say to me this is the best of of the lot. Especially when she travelled on her own. Yes, it was interesting with the family in tow.
But the research and impartial views shown in her book, makes me understand so much more of Castro-ism, and the history behind that island. I am so hoping that the ideals of it all will live with Castro's passing on and with the other politicians. Even though I know materialism and consumerism are great temptations, and will spoil what was once so unspoilt.
I so wish I could see it as it is now.
This is a superb book.

[Jean Brodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might be being a bit mean only giving this 3 stars, but for me there was too much history/politics. I loved her anecdotes of travelling round Cuba, but unfortunately I'm not sufficiently interested to read more history than is in guidebooks.
I've been to Cuba twice and therefore could picture the places she talked about. Suspect someone who hasn't been to Cuba and not a history/politics afficiando might struggle

[Ana Furtună · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading the book all i knew about Cuba was rom, cigars and Fidel. The book is in no case a guide book. But it does give you an overview of Cuba's history and stories you might never read about or hear if not interacting with locals. Any way it was a great read before and during the trip to Cuba :)