Robert Patrick’s Reviews > Before Night Falls > Status Update

on translations: i'm reading renaildo arenas' memoir/autobiography of his life in castro's cuba, "before night falls." it is captivating, infuriating, stunning, sad. what amazes me is his almost mythic happiness--which is not to say that he is a happy fool, but that he survives a harrowing coming-of-age to be thrust into a life of desperation; jailed, banned, watched, and abused by the state. through it all, though,