Cuba Diaries
-
- £4.99
-
- £4.99
Publisher Description
The face of modern-day Cuba is in many respects still frozen in the 1950s, with its classic American cars, horse-drawn carriages and colonial Spanish architecture. In a country where taxi drivers earn more than doctors, understanding Cuba is a compelling but never-ending task.
In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Cuba was plunged into crisis. Having been subsidized by the Soviet Union to the tune of $3 million a day, the country's economy entered freefall. The ban on the US dollar was lifted, the floodgates of tourism opened and the salaries of Cubans in contact with foreigners went into orbit.
Into Castro's fortress of dollar-fuelled hedonism and communist austerity came the American wife of a European energy consultant posted to Havana, and their two small children. Isadora Tattlin befriended Cubans from all walks of life, gave dozens of parties - even Fidel Castro came to dinner! - and kept a daily diary. The result is a remarkable testimony to a unique period in Cuba's history when el triunfo de la revolucion was beginning to clash with the powerful lure of multinational consumerism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this collection of her diary entries, housewife Tattlin describes the four years she and her family spent living in Cuba in the 1990s while the Communist country was adjusting to a liberalized economy and a shift in tourist policy. Living amid severe economic imbalance, "tourist apartheid" imposed upon locals, shortages of every conceivable household need (Tattlin's list of supplies extends over two pages) and a social architecture frozen in the 1950s, Tattlin and family inhabit an upscale Havana townhouse accompanied by a staff of seven. Her writing is clear and lively, her observances astute and witty. The record of her daily excursions has her searching for fresh produce, enrolling her children in swimming and dance lessons, visiting the pediatrician and hosting state dinners with guests the likes of Fidel Castro. She also avidly details daily living conditions with her servants and how she makes friends with the people in her neighborhood. But over the course of the book, the people she meets are passive, showing no resistance to Tattlin's questions and curiosity. Readers might get the sense that Tattlin is meeting the same characters time after time. In addition, her brief recollections leave little room for viewing the inner workings of her family or their relationships to one another: "Nick is depressed. He always gets depressed... when the kids and I take off." Despite these shortcomings, however, Tattlin's book is an enjoyable, warm trip.
