Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Un libro de cr nicas cubanas de la mano de doce de los m s prestigiosos periodistas y escritores de nuestro tiempo que abarca pol tica y arte, m sica y b isbol, presente y pasado, y nos ofrecen una excepcional instant nea de la particular encrucijada en la que se encuentra la sociedad cubana. "De todas las preguntas que debe hacerse el periodismo, solo hay una que, si hablamos de Cuba, puede responderse f cilmente: d nde. Todo el mundo sabe m s o menos d nde queda Cuba. Para las dem s: 'qu es Cuba, qui nes son los cubanos, c mo es Cuba, cu ndo comenz Cuba a ser lo que es, por qu Cuba es como es', y diversas variaciones y combinaciones de lo mismo no solo no hay respuestas f ciles sino que cada quien parece tener las suyas.
"Los doce textos que componen este libro procuran alejarse de los reduccionismos m s t picos y contar el pa s desde el territorio m s peligroso, y por lo mismo m s interesante, de la duda y la contradicci n. Contar Cuba -como contar el desembarco en Normand a o la ca da del Muro de Berl n- es contar la Historia en may sculas: una tarea ambiciosa. Pero, en el tartamudeo ametrallado de los tiempos presentes, estos son algunos intentos.
Leila Guerriero
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Spanning politics and art, music and baseball, Cuba on the Verge is a timely look at a society's profound transformation--from inside and out
Change looms in Cuba.
Just ninety miles from United States shores yet inaccessible to most Americans until recently, Cuba fascinates as much as it confounds. Images of the Buena Vista Social Club, wild nights at the Tropicana, classic cars, and bearded rebels clinching cigars only scrape the surface of Cuba's complex history and legacy. As the US and Cuba move toward the normalization of diplomatic relations after an epic fifty-six-year standoff, we find ourselves face-to-face with one of the few places in the world that has been off limits to most Americans. We know that Cuba is changing, but from what and into what? And what does this change mean for the Cuban people as well as for the rest of the world?
Standing on both sides of the divide, twelve of our most celebrated writers investigate this period of momentous transition in Cuba on the Verge. These essays span the spectrum, from Carlos Manuel lvarez's story of being among the last generation of Cubans to be raised under Fidel Castro to Patricia Engel's look at how Cuba's capital has changed through her years of riding across it with her taxi driver friend; from The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson (who traveled with President Obama on the first trip to Cuba by an American president since the twenties) on being a foreigner in Cuba during the Special Period to Francisco Goldman on the Tropicana, then and now, to Leonardo Padura on the religion that is Cuban baseball.
Cuba on the Verge is the definitive account of--and a unique glimpse at--a moment of upheaval and reinvention whose effects promise to reverberate across years and nations.