adult nonfiction. I was hoping that this would be more like a cuban version of behind the beautiful forevers, but in the end was not interested enough to get through it. Perhaps an audio version would be better, more like the engaging stories that NPR is known for, but alas such a thing does not appear to exist. ( )

In Ay, Cuca!, Romania-born author and NPR personality Andrei Codrescu, tells about a twelve-day trip to Cuba, but he doesn't write about hotels, restaurants, and sites to see. The trip was on the eve of Pope John Paul's historic visit to Cuba and his famous meeting with Castro, but he doesn't write much about that either. He has concentrated this book more on the lives of the Cuban people. Ay, Cuba! is more a very humorous telling of a fascinating journey through politics, culture, religion, eroticism, and, seemingly time. Codrescu's past familiarity with another struggling communist government (Romania), and his present stature as a commentator, give the reader a look through an eye that doesn't blink at the special world that is Cuba in the 1990's. It's a world where the Cubans want aspirin and American T-shirts almost as much as the tourists crave Cuban cigars.

Andrei Codrescu has a great way of getting involved in situations that make for interesting reading. In an attempt to learn about the women on the streets, he befriends a woman, and, while he doesn't have the expected sexual experience (because she becomes ill), he does learn something. Comforting the ill, naked woman, Codrescu tells her how beautiful and sensual he finds her—as he does most Cuban women. He's told that most American men feel that way. She coldly explains that it's because, in this struggling country, most Cubans eat so poorly that they're near starvation—and, sadly, Americans find this look sexy on women. Another adventure is when he looks into Santeria and a confused and stripped-down Codrescu finds himself being beaten with a live chicken in a religious ceremony. There are some great pictures, by David Graham, of the people, the buildings, and the great old American cars that not only still run, but have evolved into some new Cuban art form. These images are a colorful compliment to a book that is an interesting and humorous look into a society officially closed to Americans.

(4/99) ( )