1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great, May 13, 2007
This review is from: La Autobiografia De Fidel Castro: 1. El Paradiso De Los Otros (Coleccion Imago Mundi) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)
Excellent book.Fuentes is a great author and shows why he is currently one of the Best Cuban writer alive today! The book is written by an insider,Fuentes, who knew Castro intimitely and who spent much time with him.His "Autobiografia de Fidel Castro ,la segunda parte" is even much better.
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0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Crappy story - interesting telling, February 13, 2009
This review is from: La Autobiografia De Fidel Castro: 1. El Paradiso De Los Otros (Coleccion Imago Mundi) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)
Writing the "auto" biography of someone else is rather lame. But then, it offers a massive advantage: you don't have to name sources. You see, if Fuentes wanted to write a biography of Castro, he would have to cite sources, even imaginary ones. But writing in first person (he narrates as if he is Castro himself) he gets away without presenting a simple evidence of what he tells, where he heard it or how it can be substantiated.
I read one of his interviews where he says that almost nothing is fiction in this book. Lame. He talks about Castro's childhood, although he wasn't even born then. He talks about Castro's adolescence, although he was living hundreds of kilometers from there. Fuentes only met Castro after the Revolution and his level of intimacy was very low, access pretty limited. Still, he appears to narrate "first hand" Castro's first masturbation, his "first murder", how he felt about each woman he met, his sexual preferences, his personal views (extremely ironic and without any single exception mean) on just about everyone he met in his life etc.
Catrso appears to call Indians idiots, he exploits young female servants, he assasinates people from a very early age and all that matters to him is that his shirt got stained, he enjoys killing in person, he uses vulgar vocabulary even for hiw own mother, considers his people Untermenschen, would love to nuke the world... Good thing he didn't rape little boys, beat old women and eat children in this book.
Reading Fuentes' interviews, I was tricked into believeing this would be a balanced biography. That it would be what its backcover promises: no eulogy, no demonization. Unfortunately, it's just another book destined to sell in Miami, written for hardline Cuban-Americans who are happy to believe anything about Cuba, as long as it proves that Fidel Castro is the devil himself.
The one good thing is Fuentes' style. He has a highly mean, egomaniac, ironic narration that captivates the reader. Unfortunately one realizes pretty early that it's all fiction, so the interest goes away, although the pace is good and the time presentation of events very interesting. Still, anyone who has ever followed Castro speaking will realise that even the style of narrating has nothing to do with Fidel's: Fuentes' sentences are too long (as long as one page), his irony too black and un-English (unlike Castro's) and he misses all those entertaining back-forwards Castro makes in his speeches. Fuentes' style is better in my opinion, but it's clear it's not Fidel speaking...not even near.
As someone who's been living in Cuba for quite some time, I found the book rather disappointing. I suggest readers prefer Ramonet's book which is an AUTObiography (as Castro speaks for himself). It's a eulogy (Ramonet just lets Castro get away with so many things, too much respect there), but at least it gives an idea of how Castro thinks. Fuentes' book only gives an idea of how anti-Castro Miamians think he's thinking.
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