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Cuban Stories About People, Terraces, Food, Revolution, and Good-bye's
This book is a collection of memories from the author's childhood around the time of the Cuban Revolution. The memories reflect what the author loved most about Cuba, the customs of her family and the sudden changes in their lives. Life changed overnight and it has never been the same.
Through the stories the author shares the magic of pre-revolutionary Cuba, a place that will not be known to future visitors of the island or to new Cuban generations because those times are now gone. The memories focus on people, terraces, beaches, food and when Cuba started to change. This book is a trip to Cuba through the author's memory lane.
Through the stories the author shares the magic of pre-revolutionary Cuba, a place that will not be known to future visitors of the island or to new Cuban generations because those times are now gone. The memories focus on people, terraces, beaches, food and when Cuba started to change. This book is a trip to Cuba through the author's memory lane.
83 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 12, 2011
I received this book as part of the Goodreads giveaways and first reads.
Maria Martinez Aenlle describes her childhood in Cuba and the start of the revolution. She presents a laypersons point of view to what was going on around her. She wasn't involved in the political scheme, but instead was effected by it. Through each chapter she describes her life, predominately before the effects of the new regime.
Aenlle writes well and she focuses on each aspect of her life both in Cuba and in the US. However, I would have liked more of a linear timeline in this book. Life before the Communist regime, during the turnover and then moving to the United States and settling down. While Aenlle's style does allow each area of her life to be focused on in detail, and there is some linear flow in the last few chapters, the beginning of the book meanders all over the place.
However, for a book focusing on a layperson during a new government regime, this book is good.
Maria Martinez Aenlle describes her childhood in Cuba and the start of the revolution. She presents a laypersons point of view to what was going on around her. She wasn't involved in the political scheme, but instead was effected by it. Through each chapter she describes her life, predominately before the effects of the new regime.
Aenlle writes well and she focuses on each aspect of her life both in Cuba and in the US. However, I would have liked more of a linear timeline in this book. Life before the Communist regime, during the turnover and then moving to the United States and settling down. While Aenlle's style does allow each area of her life to be focused on in detail, and there is some linear flow in the last few chapters, the beginning of the book meanders all over the place.
However, for a book focusing on a layperson during a new government regime, this book is good.
August 26, 2011
***Goodreads Giveaway***
A lovely traipse through summer lane ways, darkened theatres and one child's memory.
Its weird to think of a time before the Cuban Weapons Crisis. A point of view explored not from The Kennedy's or America, but from that of one small girl, growing up and actually having to experience both the lose of ones independence, as in stepped a second, brand shiny new dictator in his shiny new shoes, booting out the old, and to having to seek refuge in what I would imagine was a country and its people fairly hostile to Cubans at that time.
One thing worth noting, and something that I love about Caribbean writers, is the ability to bring to life colour. Descriptions so vibrant they basically dance off the page. For me the writing style is that of a stream of conscious. In this case a free flowing memory. Like all memories, other smaller, normally insignificant memories sneak in, betraying normal cuban life.
A lovely traipse through summer lane ways, darkened theatres and one child's memory.
Its weird to think of a time before the Cuban Weapons Crisis. A point of view explored not from The Kennedy's or America, but from that of one small girl, growing up and actually having to experience both the lose of ones independence, as in stepped a second, brand shiny new dictator in his shiny new shoes, booting out the old, and to having to seek refuge in what I would imagine was a country and its people fairly hostile to Cubans at that time.
One thing worth noting, and something that I love about Caribbean writers, is the ability to bring to life colour. Descriptions so vibrant they basically dance off the page. For me the writing style is that of a stream of conscious. In this case a free flowing memory. Like all memories, other smaller, normally insignificant memories sneak in, betraying normal cuban life.
June 26, 2011
I want to thank Maria Martinez Aenlle for inviting me into her life with this GoodReads free giveaway. Her writing is enchanting and I felt like I was one of the treasured guests enjoying the porch while stories were told. My only lament is that she did not delve further into her tales and created a longer book. I enjoyed the read, but was left wanting more. Maria's life is so different from mine that I desperately wanted to go further into the atmosphere she described in order to learn what she was brought up into and why she became the wonderful writer she is now.
This is now lent to one of my co-workers and once she is done it will become a keeper in my book collection because Maria was more than kind and signed it to me.
This is now lent to one of my co-workers and once she is done it will become a keeper in my book collection because Maria was more than kind and signed it to me.
May 31, 2011
I thought it was a good memory in words, I never ealized how Cuba was before the Revolution. Makes me want to visit. I would have liked it to be longer, it was a pretty short book with 67 pages. You could almost smell the flowers and taste the food. I enjoyed it and when I entered to win books this was one that I really wanted, so I was happy to get it. I would recommend to read it.
September 19, 2014
This review of my book was written by The US Review of Books
Link:http://www.theusreview.com/reviews/Cu...
"Much of our life in Cuba was lived outdoors, not in the countryside or at the beaches, but on its terraces, patios and courtyards. My family frequently used their terrace. Our terraces were the centers of our family activities."
How exciting this story about life in Cuba, before the Cuban Revolution is! Maria Aenlle describes events from her childhood (she was seven years old) in the late 1950's, early 1960's, in El Vedado the oldest suburb of Havana. She wanted to record her childhood memories to enjoy in later years and because life in Cuba was never to be the same after the revolution. By talking to her grandmother Isabelita, her mothers cousin Cuca and Anton, grandmother's sister Josefina, their maid Elda, Aunt Carmen Luisa and her sister America, we enjoy visiting on the terraces of the city and dining at the 23rd street restaurant, and El Carmen, where her father would buy wonderful Spanish hams,cheeses and rice or beans. Shopping was another glorious activity for young Maria. El Encanto was a large, expensive department store with beautiful decorations, mirrors and escalators, that excited young Maria. After she moved to the United States, she would compare a Sacks Fifth Avenue or Lord and Taylor stores to El Encanto. The Cuban Revolution was an awful time for the author, her family and friends, and fellow Cubans. December 1958 to January 1959, were some of the roughest times. The people thought Castro would bring prosperity and freedoms to the people. They were terribly wrong. Through this documentary of the times, Ms. Aenlle joins the literary scene with this first book. She comes from a background of twenty-five years experience in retail and financial services. Her memories of the people, foods, sights and sounds of Cuban life before the revolution are vibrant. Her descriptive voice throughout this story makes us feel as though we were right there in her past, sharing the joys and sorrows along her journey.
The US Review of Books
www.theUSreview.com
Link:http://www.theusreview.com/reviews/Cu...
"Much of our life in Cuba was lived outdoors, not in the countryside or at the beaches, but on its terraces, patios and courtyards. My family frequently used their terrace. Our terraces were the centers of our family activities."
How exciting this story about life in Cuba, before the Cuban Revolution is! Maria Aenlle describes events from her childhood (she was seven years old) in the late 1950's, early 1960's, in El Vedado the oldest suburb of Havana. She wanted to record her childhood memories to enjoy in later years and because life in Cuba was never to be the same after the revolution. By talking to her grandmother Isabelita, her mothers cousin Cuca and Anton, grandmother's sister Josefina, their maid Elda, Aunt Carmen Luisa and her sister America, we enjoy visiting on the terraces of the city and dining at the 23rd street restaurant, and El Carmen, where her father would buy wonderful Spanish hams,cheeses and rice or beans. Shopping was another glorious activity for young Maria. El Encanto was a large, expensive department store with beautiful decorations, mirrors and escalators, that excited young Maria. After she moved to the United States, she would compare a Sacks Fifth Avenue or Lord and Taylor stores to El Encanto. The Cuban Revolution was an awful time for the author, her family and friends, and fellow Cubans. December 1958 to January 1959, were some of the roughest times. The people thought Castro would bring prosperity and freedoms to the people. They were terribly wrong. Through this documentary of the times, Ms. Aenlle joins the literary scene with this first book. She comes from a background of twenty-five years experience in retail and financial services. Her memories of the people, foods, sights and sounds of Cuban life before the revolution are vibrant. Her descriptive voice throughout this story makes us feel as though we were right there in her past, sharing the joys and sorrows along her journey.
The US Review of Books
www.theUSreview.com
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews