Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Enduring Cuba (Travel Literature)

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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!

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.

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.

I guess I glanced at the publish date of 2011 and thought it was a more recent experience she is writing about, until I got to the part of celebrating the 1999/2000 New Year there.
That said, I absolutely LOVE this book. It's poetic, deep, raw, intellectual and well written. It's a fantastic experience she is writing about with absolute clarity, and I recommend it highly. I wish I had a revisit to all the areas she travels to, now. I am planning a trip to Cuba this year, and this is exactly the type of book I like to read before I go - about the people, by someone who actually seeks out the locals and gets to know them.
Now if I can just bridge the gap to how much has changed, or not changed, in the last 12 years or so...

This is no ordinary travel book. It's definitely not a go-here, do-this kind of book. It's a book about the author's travels around Cuba. She chronicles her adventures in Cuba, while at the same time speaking of interesting places and events. You get to see the many different faces of Cuba, literally and figuratively. It's about black, white, and mulato too. Surprisingly it's also a history book (not a lot, but enough to make it interesting). The book both dispels and confirms many of the beliefs that westerners have about Cuba. You get a taste of the struggles that Cubans go through on a daily basis and well as the strength that they all have to continue in spite of the odds. Of course it's also about politics. How could it not be? It's about enduring Cuba, for those that are Cuban, those that choose to live there, as well as for those that travel there. Everyone endures Cuba in a different way and for different reasons.

I could relate since I have traveled to Cuba, but her experiences pale mine in comparison. I wish I had done half of the things she did. One day when the blockade ends I hope to go back so that I can experience more of Cuba. It's the kind of travels that I would like to do one day. Throw caution to the wind and don't take the safe path in a foreign place. Too often many of us travel only to go from airport to resort and back to airport again. Que lastima! She often skips the hotels to stay in casas particulares (I hope that is the correct way to make casa particular plural). She entrusts her welfare often with strangers. She goes places that even some Cubans won't go. How brave.

Her writing is fantastic. I'm not much of a reader, but it's the best piece of literary work I've read since high school (closer to 30 years than I care to admit). That statement really is more about her talent than my lack of reading. Far too often these days anyone and everyone claims to be a writer. Write a book, or an article even, and you're a writer. Zoe is the real deal. You can grasp it in her vocabulary and in her style. She even ends the book well.

If I had to say something negative it would be that I felt I needed a dictionary to follow along. There was at least one word per page that I outright didn't know, or had to guess at based on context. That's not really a negative of the book or the writer, but my own lousy vocabulary. I plan to read some more of her books in the future. What a talent. What a book.

I have just one question for the author...Did they confiscate any of your notes or tapes when you left? :-)

This book is definitely worth reading. Bran gives the reader an interesting account of her travels and interactions in Cuba over a two month period. It is an easy read, not too long, and Bran has a dreamy, lullaby style of first-person writing that invites you to stay with her. Even better, she doesn't tell you what she thinks--she tells you what she saw and heard, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.