The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times

Many stories intertwined about everyday Cuban lives. I sometimes found it a little difficult to keep track of everyone as the stories jumped back and forth but nevertheless I fully enjoyed reading it. Anthony has a way of completely immersing you in what is happening as he writes so descriptively. It took me back to my trips to the island in 2019 and early 2020. I have many friends on the island and it reminded me again of their resilience as they find themselves living under difficult circumstances that they never chose. Would definitely recommend reading if you think Cuba is just an island of beautiful beaches and rum, it will take you deeper than that!

Having lived and studied in Cuba, while on a state funded scholarship, I pre-ordered this book in eager anticipation of reading it - and it did not disappoint!I enjoyed every single sentence and highly recommend it.¡Viva Cuba! ¡Agredecimientos Eternos a Fidel!

This book tells the history of Cuba post-Revolution up to the present through the lives of a representative handful of families living in a neighbourhood of uptown Havana. Anthony DePalma, married to a Cuban and for many years a Latin America specialist for the ‘New York Times’, must have interviewed these people within an inch of their lives, for he narrates their stories in considerable detail.Done clumsily this could be tedious, but DePalma manages to give us a thoroughly engaging idea of life under Fidel and Raul Castro, one that illuminates the years of sacrifice and isolation, the paucity of nourishing food or materials for industry, the bureaucracy, surveillance state and escape attempts.The dense description of the participants’ life stories can sometimes be hard to keep up with; a ‘cast of characters’ would have been useful. There are no illustrations, but decent maps of the island and its capital. The detail has the advantage of adding richness to the portrait of Cuba DePalma takes such pains to paint for us.The book isn’t simply a hatchet job on the cruel follies of communism; if anything it goes some way to helping the reader understand the appeal of a highly regulated state and command economy for Cuba’s citizens. Yet DePalma lays bare the everyday frustrations of people trying to feed their families or aspiring to lives that offer something more than mere subsistence. The original dream of equality for all Cubans has been crumbling for a long time, says the author, but glinting through the decay of an ideology a genuine patriotism remains on display.