Customer Reviews

Cuba on the Verge: An Island in Transition

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We were drawn to the title of this book simply because of our interest in Cuba and its history and hardships. Hoping to someday visit, we were intrigued by the visual and literary representation of the story. The photography is provocative with components of sadness and pride evident in the faces that are looking back at the camera. What is remarkable is the tragedy of a once beautiful country. The destruction of Cuba and the hopelessness of its people are vividly depicted. Yet the pride and strength that is intrinsic to Cuba's culture fosters growth and change.

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.

I'm a Cuban artist currently living in the US. This book is the most important book about Cuba today to come out in many years. The images are magnificent and the concept is orginal and very smart. The essays provide an additional layer of texture than the basic coffee table book with photos alone. Now, when people ask me what Cuba is like, I'm going to show them this book.

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.

How has a tiny island had such a great impact on world culture? With it's evocative and poetic photo essays and personal almost intimate written essays about Cuba, Cuba On the Verge goes a long way to making you feel in your bones the potent Cuban 'ajiaco' the mixture of cultures and the vibrancy of the life and art it produces. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Chucho Valdes and Cuban popstar 'el Tosco' which helps us move beyond the limiting view of Buena Vista Social Club as the only Cuban music that most people in the world are aware of. Cuba is not caught in a fifties timewarp as most articles and books you read these days would have you believe, and Cuba On the Verge shows that.

A huge & quietly engrossing collection of essays & pictures by leading Cuban & American writers & photographers, offering unique insights into life in this fabled island nation.

Each essay & photo series delights--thinking men & observant women--about rituals & revolution; of struggling for love & beauty; the music of Cuba, focusing on Chucho Valdés; sugar mills & tobacco farms; the faces of change; life among the ruins; the emerging middle class; of being born too late for the revolution; of landscapes & mythology; how a Cuban comes home; letters from exile.

From the pens of Jon Lee Anderson; Russell Banks; Avilio Estévez; Abelarde Estorino; Cristina Garcia; Pablo Medina; Ana Menéndez; Mayra Montero; Nancy Morejón; Achy Obejas; Susan Orlean; Hugo Perez; Antonio José Ponte; Eduardo Luis Rodriguez & Reina Maria Rodriguez.

From the cameras of Niurka Barroso; Ernesto Bazan; Virginia Beahan; Carlos Garaicoa; Kastia Garcia Fayat; Abigail Gonzáles; Andrew Moore; Inge Morath; Abelardo Morell; René Peña; Manuel Piña; Silvia Plachy; Adalberto Roque; Fazal Sheikh & Carrie Mae Weems.

William Kennedy's Introduction is written in the style of a Miami newsman, who has written about Cuba for decades & now at last he's going to the "incipient phoenix, an exotic ambiguity...one of the major social experiments of the twentieth century..." & his excitement is palpable.

Playwright Arthur Miller's Epilogue is rich in impressions & American points of view of an encounter with The Leader, President Fidel Castro.

Having visited the places in this book, such as the beautiful Old Havana, El Malecón and the captivating country side- I can truly say that this book, by it's wonderful photgraphy and powerful essays, has captured the tu essence of what is Cuba today. This book allows you to enjoy the breathtaking island caught in a past era distinguished by its architecture, granduer of vision and the vibrant sense of life. This book captures a great sense of life, optimism, spirit and pride of the wonderous country.

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.

Having visited the places in this book, such as the beautiful Old Havana, El Malecón and the captivating country side- I can truly say that this book, by it's wonderful photgraphy and powerful essays, has captured the tu essence of what is Cuba today. This book allows you to enjoy the breathtaking island caught in a past era distinguished by its architecture, granduer of vision and the vibrant sense of life. This book captures a great sense of life, optimism, spirit and pride of the wonderous country.

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.)