Cuba and the Night [Hardcover]

Pico Iyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 1996

Having captivated readers with such gems of travel writing as Video Night in Kathmandu, Pico Iyer now presents a novel whose central character is another place: the melancholy, ebullient, and dazzlingly inconsistent island that is Castro's Cuba. "On almost every page you can smell the dust, the cheap perfume and the rum of Havana today, or better still, tonight."--Los Angeles Times.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Steeped in the resonant, atmospheric imagery and canny sense of cultural dislocation that distinguish his travel writing, Iyer's (Falling Off the Map) first novel nevertheless succumbs to a slim and schematic plot. As recounted by a cool and callous American photographer named Richard, who has spent much of his life crisscrossing the globe, the story turns on a triangular, post-Cold War romance in Havana. Jet-setting to and from Havana on assignments from European magazines, Richard falls for Lourdes, a voluptuous, passionate, dark-complexioned Cuban native who is desperate to emigrate. Together Richard and Lourdes cruise the Cuban nightlife, seeking furtive places to make love and talk politics, shooting photographs and discussing the poetry of 19th-century nationalist hero Jose Marti. Richard refuses to divorce his wife but arranges for Lourdes to marry his acquaintance Hugo Cartwright, a prim and tweedy British schoolteacher, intending to rendezvous with her in England. Due in part to Richard's arrogance, however, the narrative fails to convey much emotional depth, and it comes as no surprise when his plans go disastrously awry. The novel is less a compelling tale than a vivid travelogue, evoking a country in cultural limbo, hopelessly isolated and destitute, its disaffected young populace relentlessly hustling for ways to escape. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The title of this first novel by Time magazine essayist Iyer (Falling Off the Map, LJ 5/1/93) comes from a line of Jose Marti's "Two fatherlands I have, Cuba and the night." Indeed, Marti's aura haunts the entire work, from its epigraph to its final sentence when, as the narrator watches the woman he loves smile at another man with a smile unlike any "I could have gotten in my lens," she picks up a book that "looked to be Marti." This is a love story about both person and place. On the one hand, it traces the relationship that develops between an emotionally drained American freelance photographer and a young Cuban woman whose chief sustenance is her dreams. On the other, it is the story of Havana and the resilience of the Cuban people in the late Castro era. The Cuba pictured is a passionate albeit desperate place where sloganeering increases as economic conditions degenerate. As for Richard (the photographer), he learns that passion by itself is not enough, that life requires more than color. A worthy first effort; suitable for academic and public libraries, particularly those serving a Hispanic audience.?David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (October 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517172674
• ISBN-13: 978-0517172674
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dead-On, December 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Cuba and the Night: A Novel (Paperback)

Pico Iyer's "Cuba and the Night" is the only realistic depiction of life in present-day Cuba that I have found written in English. Sure, the plot is a little weak on action. But this sameness serves as the perfect vehicle for conveying the muddle that is present-day Havana. The only "action" in Cuba is of the emotional and psychological variety.

I agree that there is an awkward reliance on the use of letters to impart the story throughout the book. But as one who has spent time in Cuba, I can affirm that MUCH of one's interrelation with those on the island occurs through letters. The occasional distorted phone call and two-month-delayed letter are of indescribable emotional significance--to both those "afuera," and those that remain in the land of Fidel.

Cuba haunts the mind and spurs the emotions; oftentimes most profoundly AFTER one has left the island--after one has left behind one's friends and lovers.

There are no car chases or shoot-outs in Cuba. But day-to-day life IS the psychological and emotional minefield that Iyer so deftly evokes. Cuba is a society unrestrained; both a heartbreaker and an addiction. And the romance, intrigue, mistrust and agitation that I once found so uncomfortable to accept as a reader indeed represent the REALITY of the place.

When I first read "Cuba and the Night," several years ago, I was immune to its charms (To put it mildly). But--having revisited the book after six uninterrupted months in Havana this year--I can only describe it as a perfect rendition of the place. I love Cuba. And I love the Cuban people. But NO ONE leaves the place with their innocence intact, and NO ONE of sensitivity leaves the island without being profoundly changed.

I only wish that I had accepted the book as reality before boarding that flight from Cancun to Havana eleven months--and what seems like a lifetime--ago.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great details of Cuban life and a good love story, March 15, 2003

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cuba and the Night: A Novel (Paperback)

This is a delightfully insightful look at life in communist Cuba and also a love story between an international photojournalist and a young Cuban woman. Told in the first person from the photographer's point of view, we slowly see the complexities of Cuban life unfold as he becomes more involved with this woman and her life in Cuba. The contrasts between the needs of men and women in relationships and capitalism and communism are well presented. Although written during the early 1990s, the portrayal of life in Cuba and the Cuban people is still valid.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo Mr. Iyer!, May 26, 2002

By 

Barabara (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuba And The Night (Audio Cassette)

I read this book many years ago when Cuba wasn't so much in the news and I must say that I have only the fondest memories of reading this passion packed novel. I felt every emotion whether happy or sad that the protagonists felt. It is a wonderful book that provides an accurate not exaggerated insight of how Cubans really live in Castro's Cuba. If you love the Cuban culture, its music and people, I recommend you read this novel. It will transport you to la Habana in seconds and it may even help you better understand the very sad and depressing Cuban phlight.