Customer Reviews

Take Me with You: A Memoir

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(3)
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I came upon this book by chance and was at first taken with the writing, which is marvelously evocative of the people and places Frias describes. Then I felt drawn into the hunt for the author's family ties in Cuba, and remnants of life befor Fidel. I wish the book were longer. It is entertaining, edifying, and moving. I hope to read more by Frias in the very near future.

Through Carlos Frias' heart-felt scribing, I stowed away to Cuba on this amazing journey. His descriptive writing truly brings the smells of Havana's streets and Cuban coffee into your home. This is a must read for anyone who has ever wondered what daily life is like behind the Cuban curtain. I wait with earnest for Carlos' next gift to the literary world.

Take Me with You is a memoir like no other. Author Carlos Frias sneaks the reader into the dark decay of forbidden Cuba with a whispered agreement: Reader must acknowledge the grave danger in which his Cuban relatives have placed themselves by being candid. Further, we must help protect them by never insisting that names or descriptions of meetings be entirely accurate. Any book that draws the reader into a life-and-death contract from the get-go, promises to deliver a riveting read. Take Me with You makes good on that promise.

Frias, an award-winning journalist and the American-born son of Cuban exiles living in south Florida, snaps up an assignment to cover Cuba during Castro's illness in 2006. For him, this is more than an assignment; it's an opportunity to discover the mythical Cuba spun from the collective nostalgia, heartbreak, and personal secrets of his parents and their community. It's a homecoming in a place he never actually lived. Posing as a wide-eyed tourist while Cuba is ejecting all journalists, Frias bluffs his way into the country from Cancun for twelve days that will change his life.

Take Me with You is the work of a master storyteller, and it's a good thing. This is a complex book: one part memoir, one part history book, one part travelogue, and one part love letter to Frias's parents. It's flawlessly written to capture the heart-pounding danger of his mission, the despair and hope of Cuba's people, and the passionate love of family separated by miles of ocean and years of time. Take Me with You is breathtaking. Frias just set the new standard for memoir.

This book is fantastic. It really gives a great view of the social and human cost of the "glorious" Cuban revolution that has caused so much suffering and hardship in Cuba. Frias' juxtaposition of his life in Miami with the life that would have been, had his family not made the decision to leave Cuba (at a very great cost), is quite compelling.

After reading it I gave copies as Christmas gifts to some relatives and a couple of co-workers who will relate.

Excellent read, quite engaging.

Carlos Frias' book "Take Me With You" not only personalizes life today inside of Cuba, but it is a must read for anyone who has an interest in writing about their family heritage. Carlos' parents and their former Cuban associates are now in their senior years, but through his writing you see them as they were in their years of youth in a Cuba before the communist revolution. Carlos' descriptions mirror my own research in learning to know my parents, both now deceased, as the young people they once were.

This book is so well written that I finished the book in two days. You see the side of Cuba that Castro doesn't want anyone to see in this book. But you also get a glimpse into an extended family that defies ethnicity.

The book reads like a novel, although it is nonfiction. The author weaves humor into a story that is both tragic and uplifting. The setting is Cuba, but it could be any country from which Americans have immigrated. By the end of the story, I was left with a feeling of hope for the future of the author and his family.

I highly recommend this book!

Heart breaking story of a young mans return to his parents homeland. Very touching and sad. Worth reading just to know how things really are on the island.

This book is fabulous!!! Once you start reading it it is hard to put it down. Carlos Frias takes you on an incredible journey to Cuba. He traces family roots and meets family he has never known. He tells you what modern day Cuba is like & it is riveting. Many of us take knowing our family history for granted. Carlos is able to connect with family in a close but forbidden country. Can't tell you any more. This book is a keeper!

As a former West Palm Beach resident (30 years) now living in Dayton Ohio, growing up with Cuban immigrants, I was probably more interested in reading this book that the average person. I can rate this book in two short words - LOVED IT! Carlos takes us on this personal journey of his.... paints amazing pictures.... allows us into very private and imtimate parts of this life and gives us all a greater appreciation of family and our own roots. There are so many reasons I enjoyed this book. It reminded a bit of my own family, Italian immigrants....and it gave me a greater respect and understanding of the many Cubans that I grew up with in south Florida, and honestly, did not appreciate and respect as I now know that I should have. Carlos, you are an amazing writer. Thank you for sharing your family's intimate moments and history with me.

I thank Carlos Frias for taking this journey, then writing this book and taking me -- and all his readers -- along, too. I had considered myself pretty familiar with issues of Cuba, but Frias' emotional tale puts me inside the lives of Cubans in country and in South Florida and my understanding has deepened. Should be required reading for those making policy in D.C. and college classes studying related subject matter. I do recommend having a map handy while reading to better navigate the story. Would recommend that future editions include this.