Last Dance in Havana

By Eugene Robinson

Book Overview

In power for forty-four years and counting, Fidel Castro has done everything possible to define Cuba to the world and to itself -- yet not even he has been able to control the thoughts and dreams of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743246225
• ISBN13: 9780743246224
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Last Dance in Havana

This book is amazing. It is a poetic and hardhitting view into the life in today's Cuba. Robinson doesn't miss a thing and is very clear about what is good and the many, many problems and flaws. It is hard hitting journalism from a Pultizer Prize winner with an open view to the magic of the dance which is what truly identifies the people of Cuba. [...]

good intro to the music scene in Havana

The book is an easy read and gives a good feel of Havana in the last few years, especially as regards the music scene. Robinson's ability in capturing the atmosphere, more than anything else, earns him points. The often-made claim that music and culture are intimately tied together in Cuba is given substantial anecdotal evidence based on observation and interviews. His knowledge of the Cuban music scene prior to the advent of rap in the late 90's seems sketchy though, and the book could certainly have been helped with more research here. Robinson also scores by pondering the intriguing question of whether music might be the source for a nascent civil society in Cuba, though the idea is not entirely new. His penchant for Afro-Cuban culture and the problematics of racism has its merits, though his presentation of these being the most urgent and potentially boat-rocking social issues lose a little of their thrust when considering that most of his narrative takes place in Havana, and to a lesser extent Santiago and Matanzas, all of them bastions of Afro-Cuban culture. His North American optic is overly obvious at times, and he actually devotes a chapter to US exiles in Cuba. Unfortunately, Robinson is prone to exaggeration and over-simplified evaluations that he serves en passant as offhand remarks. In quite a few instances, what is passed off as factual is actually speculatory, and all in all his arguments seem based largely on personal experience and not on any serious research. His antipathy toward Europeans (portrayed grossly as pot-bellied sex-seekers) also does little for his credibility. Definitely worth a read for those who want to know the temperature on Havana's streets and how to read it, and for such sharp and sweaping comments as this one: "In the land of chronic scarcity, about the only things in perpetual surplus are vanity, ingenuity, and time."

Loved it

I thought this was a very well done book....both about the music scene and the changes in life in Cuba in the past few years. Clearly Mr. Robinson knows his subject, and writes beautifully. It took me back to the clubs and streets and to the people whom he obviously cares about. Well worth the time.

The beat of modern Cuba throbs on every page

Eugene Robinson is a fine journalist who writes with style and confidence. His reportage is highly original. He completely avoids the well-worn path of hoary political analysis and gets out onto the streets and into the clubs of Cuba to produce a fascinating account of modern Cuba at the end of the Castro era. Some of the passages in this book really resonate - travel writing of a high order that illuminates a big picture by reference to the everyday culture of a people who have learned to escape from their oppression by means of the language of music. Arriba Eugene Robinson! This book really does add to the sum of collective knowledge about Cuba.