Persona Non Grata: Envoy in Castro's Cuba [Hardcover]

Jorge Edwards (Author), C. Harding (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 1977

In 1970 Edwards was sent by socialist Chilean President Allende as his country's first envoy to break the diplomatic blockade that had sealed Cuba for over a decade, and open a Chilean embassy. His arrival coincided with the turning point of the revolution, when Castro began to repress the very intellectuals he once courted. Edwards recorded his disenchantment with the revolution in this book that made him a victim of double censorship and was banned by the left as well as the right. Since its publication over thirty years ago, it has maintained its authenticity and is considered the most controversial and notorious work of the winner of the Premio Cervantes 1999.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This mordant, ironic memoir by Chilean diplomat/novelist Edwards was the first critical evaluation of Cuba by a left-wing Latin American intellectual and caused a scandal among Western Leftists when it appeared in 1973. American publishers optioned the book but "ended up opting out," explains Edwards. Then a Chilean publisher published it here, but the enterprise floundered and the book "never even reached the bookstores." Appointed by the Allende government in 1970, Edwards was Chile's first diplomatic representative to Cuba. Though he spent just three and a half months on the island, he became aware of both an increased repression of intellectuals and also of the growing failure of the moral incentives of socialism. His meetings with Castro were not reassuring. While Edwards's account of kibitzing with the Cuban leader on a golf course is amusing, their final session--beginning just before midnight and lasting three hours and 20 minutes on the eve of Edwards's departure--is disturbing. Castro declared him "a person hostile to the Cuban Revolution" and dismissed "bourgeois intellectuals" saying, "I'd a thousand times rather Allende had sent us a miner than a writer."
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Chilean lawyer, diplomat, author, intellectual, critic of Castro and Pinochet, and friend of Neruda, Edwards achieved lasting fame when this memoir first appeared in Spanish in 1973. He was one of the first Latin American intellectuals to publicly criticize the Castro regime in Cuba. His powerfully written book describes a four-month residence in Havana in late 1971 and early 1972, when he was the first Chilean diplomat appointed to Cuba by the Salvador Allende administration. Edwards recounts late-night audiences with Castro, meetings with disillusioned Cuban intellectuals, and encounters with the secret police. He paints an uncomplimentary portrait of Castro as an aging, tired revolutionary whose attempts to reform the Cuban economy seemed destined to fail. Recommended for most collections.
- Brian E. Coutts, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: The Bodley Head Ltd (January 6, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0370103750
• ISBN-13: 978-0370103754
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,811,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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