Customer Reviews

Letters from Cuba

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I haven't read this book yet, but I felt someone should respond to the negative review that mentioned the flag.

This book is called "Letters from Cuba". The flag on the cover is actually a stamp (note the postmark cancellation), so the cover will look like a picture postcard. The stamp is a 1990 CUBAN stamp commemorating "Historia Latinoamericana". In this particular stamp it's honoring Puerto Rico.

So don't let that reviewer's mistake throw you off this book. I have read other books by this author, as well as an interview of him. He has spent a fair amount of time in Cuba. He is a train buff, and I think he originally went to Cuba because they have so many steam locomotives in daily operation. While there he also came to appreciate the people who live there. It is authentic.

I liked this book. Its format, which consists of letters written by the author to friends and family back home, is interesting, entertaining, and informative--and utterly unpretentious. Furthermore, the author mentions the bad with the good, which is a nice change from many other books about Cuba that tend to gloss over Castro's blunders.

After spending a fascinating week in Cuba I chose to read more books about other people's experiances there. The author's accounts made me feel like I was back in Cuba again, both reliving my own experiances as well as learning more about Cuba. I found this book a wonderful account of Hungy Wolf's month long adventure to a very unique place.

I have not read the book yet, but I did notice that the flag shown on the cover is not the Cuban flag. The triangle of the Cuban flag is RED and the stripes are Blue. The Puerto Rican flag, which is identical to the Cuban flag, has the colors reversed. Triangle BLUE and stripes in RED. It makes me wonder about the contents of the book. The author couldn't even show the proper Flag on the cover.