Pleased | Cuba on the Verge : An Island in Transition | Terry McCoy, William Kennedy, ... ...

interesting | Cuba on the Verge : An Island in Transition | Terry McCoy, William Kennedy, ...

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	• Cuba on the Verge : An Island in Transition Terry McCoy, William Kennedy, ..., 2003 - 200 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A MASTERPIECE

If you look at something from enough different angles, you begin to sense what it is truly like. That is the overarching strategy of this wondrous book. Multi-faceted Cuba is seen through the eyes of greatly gifted writers and photographers, each with his or her own unique relationship with and idiosyncratic take on the island. The strategy succeeds brilliantly. Paradoxes and trade-offs are subtly explored, for example, between the blessings of free education and health care versus constraints on the ability to pursue dreams. You get not only to understand but also to feel the sensuous physical beauty of the place and the strains of Cuba's love/hate relationship with the U.S.. After spending time with this book, I feel as if I had actually been there and am left with a longing to go.

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Pleased

I bought this book for a Cuban friend of my, who is very knowledgeable about his country. He loves Cuba but is realistic about it as well. He was so thrilled with the amazing pictures in this book, he still thanks me. An as a photographer, I agree that the life and passion of Cuba is conveyed beautifully. As for a previous review: Just because people currently live in the US doesn't mean they haven't lived and traveled elsewhere.

interesting

Hey, how is it that all the reviewers are from the United States, where it's citizens are not allowed in Cuba? Just curious from someone in Canada who's been there.

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Americans in Cuba

The book is fantastic! I traveled to Cuba as a student for six weeks in 2003, and I am always looking for photos and literature that capture today's Cuba in the truest light. This is one of those...
(FYI: It is only very recently that almost all travel for US citizens to Cuba has been restricted, and many people still manage to go illegally. Like I said, I went in 2003 as a student with permission from the US government...and now I search constantly for a way to go back, but so far I have not had any luck.)

Vividly Rendered and Aptly Titled Portrayal of a Fascinating Country in Flux

As a traveler who has been mesmerized by Cuba through literature and film, I am filled with images of the country's idiosyncratic, seemingly incompatible mix of a totalitarian regime and a life-loving people. Editor Terry McCoy has done a superb job of capturing the precarious balancing act pervasive in contemporary Cuban life with this coffee table tome of photographs and essays. She thoughtfully organizes an intensely complex subject into themes relating to the country's art, music, ethnic makeup and local customs. Contributors range from novelist Russell Banks and playwright Arthur Miller to Cuban poets like Nancy Morejón and Reina María Rodríguez.

Some essays are memory pieces, while others are more objective observations. Yet, all add up to a vividly rendered tapestry complemented by the stunning photographs. Among my favorite sections are Pablo Medina's "A Brief History of Exile", in which he discovers his Cuban identity, and Carrie Mae Weems' combination of poetry & photos, "Ritual and Revolution". This book has a particular resonance given the ongoing effects of the U.S. trade embargo on the Cuban economy. For over forty years, Cuba has had to make do with native ingenuity, a powerful sense of life affirmation and a quiet but palpable sense of desperation. All these elements are captured with acuity in this evocative book, probably the next best thing to being able to visit. I recommend reading Richard Gott's "Cuba: A New History" as a complementary piece to give you a fuller portrayal of this endlessly fascinating country.

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This riveting analogy showcases the work of leading Cuban and American writers and photographers and offers unprecedented insight into life in the island nation today. While the world ponders Cuba's future, and the United States weighs the effects of the trade embargo imposed more than 40 years ago, Cubans go about their everyday lives overcoming obstacles with a mixture of about their everyday lifes overcoming obstacles with a mixture of ingenuity, intelligence, perseverance, and above all else, a sense of humor. How does this transitional moment in the island's history find expression in the lives of the Cuban people? What do the social, cultural, and personal landscapes of Cuba look and feel like today? CUBA ON THE VERGE is an honest and balanced portrayal of the complex realities of modern Cuban life.

Critically acclaimed novelise Ruseell Banks recalls his dream as a young man of joining the Revolution--and climbs the Sierra Maestra in an attempt to come to terms with that vision of long ago; Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban, writes about the experience of exile and the adaptations it engenders; New Yorker correspondent Jon Lee Anderson writes about the New Middle Class in Cuba; and Antonio Jose Ponte, one of the most talented of the current generation of Cuban writers, meditates on the unique sense of time on the island.

Essays and portfolios of images are linked to central themes, incuding Afro-Cuban culture, traditional music versus the cutting edge, architecture, sexuality, Santeria, rural life, exile, and the role of women in Cuban society.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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