Havana

January 9, 2017
Warmly rendered and rich with the insights of an observer intimate with his subject, this paean to the city of Havana is as engaging as it is timely. The chapters read like a series of colorful picture postcards, each one a touchstone of Havana’s history and Cuban culture. One addressing the city’s intense tropical heat leads to reflections on bloody events that punctuate Havana’s “tragic and impassioned history,” because “in Havana every splash of light has its dark spot.” References to Cecilia Valdés (1882), the landmark novel of exiled Cuban novelist Cirilo Villaverde, invoke discussion of the island’s Afro-Cuban culture and its slave trade, which was not abolished until 1886. Descriptions of the city’s postrevolution character naturally invite comparisons to prerevolutionary Havana and its near-overdevelopment with luxury hotels promoted by mobster Meyer Lansky and other organized crime syndicates. Kurlansky (Paper) has a tour guide’s eye for Havana’s most notable aspects, and he anchors his colorful observations with historical details gleaned from more than three decades of familiarity with the place and its people, beginning in 1976 as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. This vivid travelogue may well persuade his readers that “Havana, for all its smells, sweat, crumbling walls, isolation, and difficult history, is the most romantic city in the world.” Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency.

Starred review from February 15, 2017

Kurlansky has moved on from food (Cod; The Big Oyster; Salt) and returned to the Caribbean. Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (1926-2016) is now gone, but his brother Raul is in charge, and the revolution lives. Kurlansky captures it all: how Cuba got to this point: the obliteration of the native Tainos, colonization by Spain, 19th-century independence movements, U.S. invasion, the American gangster period in Havana, and then the overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista. He continues with Castro's suppression of dissidents, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its ensuing Special Period, the opening up of Cuba to elements of capitalism, normalization of relations with its archenemy, the United States, and Castro's death. Kurlansky soberly reveals everything, warts and all. The Americans liberated Cuba from Spain, but their motives were hardly pure. Castro and his band of revolutionaries offered free health care and education for all, but had a difficult time providing basic foodstuffs. Gays were persecuted under the revolution in the 1960s, but now Castro's niece is a leading gay rights activist. VERDICT This extremely readable book is not preachy, not dogmatic, not shrill. As in life, there is a mixture of both good and evil, and Kurlansky, a frequent Cuba correspondent, covers it well. [See Prepub Alert, 7/11/16.]--Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2016
Journeying through the streets, and history, of Cuba's famed capital.An award-winning writer on travel, food, and culture, Kurlansky (Paper: Paging Through History, 2016, etc.) was for 10 years the Chicago Tribune's Caribbean correspondent. He draws on many visits to the island for a spirited portrait of Havana, "like no other city on earth," a place of color, contradictions, and, for the author, enticing allure. "Havana, to be truthful, is a mess," he writes. "The sidewalks are cracked and broken, as are most of the streets." Walls are sun-bleached, some covered in "various molds, mildews," and other tropical blights; wood is destroyed by termites. The city "looks like the remnants of an ancient civilization." But despite troubled infrastructure, it throbs with life: music, dance, art, and food. Kurlansky chronicles the city's roiling past, beginning in 1492 with Columbus' landing, followed by Spanish conquest and the incursion of French pirates. Soon, Havana became "a huge slave-trading center" that generated enormous wealth. In fact, "slavery lasted longer in Cuba than anywhere in the Americas." By 1869, the author reports, there were more than 763,000 whites, 363,000 slaves, and 239,000 "free coloreds" on the island. Slaves could buy their freedom, which led many enslaved women to prostitution. That legacy persisted: until the revolution in 1959, Havana was reputed for its "huge prostitute market." "For many men," writes Kurlansky, "a visit to a prostitute was one of the celebrated features of a trip to Havana, along with music, rum, and cigars." American sugar interests developed the island to facilitate their own profits, bringing railroads and steamship service and selling off cheap land for the construction of villas for the rich minority. Besides focusing on economics and politics, Kurlansky evokes the African-inflected music that dominates the city and provides recipes for some quintessential Cuban dishes, such as the succulent stew known as ajiaco and for the Cuban version of the mojito. An affectionate, richly detailed, brief biography of a unique city.

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Starred review from January 1, 2017
This little gem of a book by the prolific Kurlansky (Salt: A World History, 2002, and many others) is a revelation. The subtitle is from a quote from Cuban writer Abilio Estevez, and Kurlansky spends considerable time discussing Cuban literature and acknowledging his debts to, among others, Alejo Carpentier (not really a Cuban, we learn), Leonardo Padura, and statesman-writer Jose Marti (along with non-Cubans like Graham Greene and Hemingway). The centerpiece of Cuban literature (and an insight into race), Kurlansky argues, is Cirilo Villaverde's Cecilia Valdes. In addition to its literarture, Kurlansky examines the good and the bad in both pre- and post-revolutionary Cuba, noting the central role of slavery (not abolished until 1887) and the lingering sexism in the culture's attitude toward women, but also celebrating the music and dance, the religion, and, of course, baseball and food and mojitos (for which recipes are given). At a most auspicious moment in the history of Cuba and Havana, Kurlansky, who has spent much time in the country as a journalist, writes an eloquent love letter to one of the world's great cities.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

The protean Kurlansky, the New York Times best-selling author, James Beard Award winner, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, spent ten years as Caribbean correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and has visited Havana for decades. Hence, this cultural history-cum-travelog, complete with recipes and Kurlansky's own pen-and-ink drawings, ranges from Cuban baseball to the remarkable musical scene to the city's rich literary history. Here you'll meet both Cuban writers (e.g., Alejo Carpentier and Jose Marti) and entranced foreigners such as Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.