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Lädt ... Warten auf Schnee in Havanna (2003)von Carlos Eire
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. I sat down to read a few pages and was completely drawn into it. Although it is nominally a memoir, he moves around and remembers the way a child does. His childhood doesn't seem all that different to a child in the 50s in the US until it comes quite vividly different. I loved his writing style and the raw emotion he shared. Wonderfully written and extremely evocative. Considering that Carlos Eire was only eleven years old when he left Cuba, this book could have gone wrong in a lot of different ways. From a certain perspective, it's nothing but a series of childhood reminiscences, not too different from the kind that any upper-middle class Cuban boy of his generation might have. He talks about Cuba's beautiful skies, its seashore, its daily rituals, and a bit about its fragile social structure. But he mines this material for all that it's worth. And specifically because his life is now a closed book, every one of these forty brief chapters is impregnated with terrible longing and loss. It also helps that the author's got a sharp eye, a good sense of structure -- these little chapters frequently connect to others or circle back on themselves -- and a well-developed sense of irony. Considering that his father -- athough often kind, caring and boyishly playful -- actually seems to have believed himself to be a reincarnation of Louis XIV of France, he probably needed that last quality. But "Waiting for Snow in Havana" also goes deeper, in some ways, than the average midlife memoir has to. Like Eire, I moved countries at a young age, although, unlike him, I've never been any sort of refugee. Even so, I found parts of this book excruciatingly difficult to read, and the author's description of the profound effect that this event had on not just his life but on his deepest self rings very true. Eire still considers him fundamentally, inalterably Cuban, and the reader can sense how the memories he includes here have sustained him throughout his life. At the same time, the rude shock of being separated from his family and culture and losing his social status also shaped his adulthood. In its last chapters, we can see that "Waiting for Snow in Havana" is much more than an exercise in upper-class nostalgia. Eire fully embraces the fact that he had to face great adversity and grow from it: he's turned his exile and the sometimes fragmentary memories he took from Cuba into a way to discover himself and who he is. This book won't suit anyone, but I suspect that lots of people who's had suffered a serious geographic dislocation at some point during their lives -- who've had to leave everything behind and move on -- will find it to be seriously inspiring testimony. This is the only memoire I've read by someone who lived through Castro's take over of Cuba. The author was 9 or 10-years old when the Revolution took place. By the time he was 11, Fidel was firmly in power, and his parents sent him to the U.S. where he knew no one. It took his mother 3 and a half years to secure an exit permit and join him, and he never saw his father again. It is a compelling portrait of the rich childhood he had, the adaptations he had to make as an exile, and how his Cuban culture influenced his experience of America. He went on to become a professor of History and Religion and did not plan to write a memoire. When the news story of Elian Gonzalez emerged the story more or less demanded to be written. The writing is quirky and interesting. It's not one of my all time favorite books, but I would definitely recommend it.
Eire's complex, introspective memoir begins the day his world changed: when Castro's troops sent President Batista into exile far from Cuba in 1959. The son of a judge who believed himself to be Louis XVI reincarnated, Carlos, along with his older brother, Tony, spent his days playing with fireworks and lizards. He attended an elite school, where Batista's children were his classmates. Carlos' biggest worries were the disapproving stares he received from a portrait of Maria Theresa of Austria and Jesus, who would sometimes appear in the window to him. All of that changed when Castro came to power; suddenly, attending a prestigious school or driving a classy car was dangerous. The Eire family remained in Cuba even as others left, until finally Eire's parents sent Carlos and Tony to Florida, where a very different life awaited them. Years passed before their mother joined them, but Carlos never saw his father again. In this open, honest, and at times angry memoir, Eire bares his soul completely and captivates the reader in the process. Gehört zur ReiheAuszeichnungenPrestigeträchtige AuswahlenBemerkenswerte Listen
A childhood in a privileged household in 1950s Havana was joyous and cruel, like any other-but with certain differences. The neighbor's monkey was liable to escape and run across your roof. Surfing was conducted by driving cars across the breakwater. Lizards and firecrackers made frequent contact.Carlos Eire's childhood was a little different from most. His father was convinced he had been Louis XVI in a past life. At school, classmates with fathers in the Batista government were attended by chauffeurs and bodyguards. At a home crammed with artifacts and paintings, portraits of Jesus spoke to him in dreams and nightmares.Then, in January 1959, the world changes: Batista is suddenly gone, a cigar-smoking guerrilla has taken his place, and Christmas is cancelled. The echo of firing squads is everywhere. And, one by one, the author's schoolmates begin to disappear-spirited away to the United States. Carlos will end up there himself, without his parents, never to see his father again.Narrated with the urgency of a confession, Waiting for Snow in Havana is both an ode to a paradise lost and an exorcism. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times when we are certain we have died-and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)972.9123063092History and Geography North America Mexico, Central America, West Indies, Bermuda West Indies (Antilles) and Bermuda; Caribbean Cuba HavanaKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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