Lonely Planet Enduring Cuba (Travel Literature) [Paperback]

Zoe Schramm-Evans (Author)

Book Description

Series: Travel Literature | Publication Date: May 1, 2002

Zoe Bran has always been fascinated by the gap between the ideals of the world's socialist countries and the arduous hand-to-mouth struggles of the people who live in them. Castro's Cuba is one of the last places on earth. Seeking to understand the reality of Cuba today, Zoe travels the length of this beautiful island. Beneath the surface of music and dancing, cockfights and animal sacrifice, she finds a land of complex ambiguities: a fertile land where many hunger; an educated country with scant knowledge of the outside world; a nation exhausted by socialism but proud of its independence and history of revolutionary struggle. From Havana to the pastoral hinterland, Zoe talks with writers and artists, with expatriates, with committed revolutionaries and those desperate to escape abroad. Enduring Cuba presents a kaleidoscope of Cuba and its people, whose tenacity and endurance is at once astonishing and humbling.

Editorial Reviews

Review

…Lonely Planet, the intrepid traveler's bible...' --Los Angeles Times, April 2005

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740590678
• ISBN-13: 978-1740590679
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,451,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very sensitive and observant view of today's Cuba, September 1, 2002

By 

"ginnymurray" (Edgartown, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Enduring Cuba (Travel Literature) (Paperback)

Ms. Bran's book so closely mirrors my own impressions and experiences in visiting Cuba with a natural history tour group in early 2001 that it is spellbinding. Her objectivity and the breadth of her experiences provide a reader with a more than reasonable facsimile for an actual visit to the island. The many small details that she notes are particularly noteworthy for a past traveler to Cuba: the lack of toilet seats, the rationing of soap and toilet paper, the constant search for food by the populace,the CDR painted on the cement residential buildings, the Chocolate Factory outside Baracoa, the intimate social activities along the Malecon, the political slogans, the presence of Che Guevara today, the furtive conversations, the marvellous music, the wonderful hopeful spirit of the population. If you read just one book about the current social experience in Cuba today, run to enjoy Enduring Cuba. I couldn't put it down!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Objective, informative and EXCELLENT in all respects, September 24, 2002

By 

DEBRALEE J BUCKLEY (Anacortes, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Enduring Cuba (Travel Literature) (Paperback)

I agree with ginnymurphy that this is one of the very best books about Cuba and how the state is now that I've ever read. There's no propaganda (at least, that I could discern) here. Zoe Bran uses her investigative skills (in figuring out & explaining the lack of toilet seats, for example) and also her intense yet sensitive journalistic skills in interviewing (in Spanish) so many average Cubans, as well as several diplomats and Cuban officials, to get an all-around perspective of the situation there. She's very good at what she does, and she also sounds like the kind of person I'd like to be with on a visit to Cuba, a place that fascinates us norteamericanos, whether we admit it or not.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real thing, February 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet Enduring Cuba (Travel Literature) (Paperback)

This is one of the very few really good books on Cuba available right now, mostly because it's much much, more than just a travel book. Unlike many so-called experiences of the island, Bran's book doesn't sentimentalise but gives the real experience of someone visiting Cuba with a clear, unbiased eye. There's history here and personal experience and a whole lot of great description of people and places. Bran's range of knowledge is considerable and I particularly liked her Graham Greene-style meetings with the foreign correspondent who got thrown out of the country because he upset Castro by constantly referring to his age! I'd definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to know more about Cuba and what's it's really like in the dying days of a communist state.