How Things Fall Apart

by Elizabeth Dore

How Things Fall Apart reveals the decay of this political system through the lives of five ordinary Cuban citizens. Born in the 1970s and 80s, these men and women recount how their lives changed over a tumultuous stretch of thirty-five years: first when Fidel opened the country to tourism following the fall of the Soviet bloc; then when Raul Castro allowed market forces to operate, thinking it would stop the country's economic slide; and finally when President Trump's tightening of the US embargo combined with the Covid-19 pandemic to cause economic collapse. With warmth and humanity, they describe learning to survive in an environment where a tiny minority has grown rich by local standards, the great majority has been left behind, and inequality has destroyed the very things that used to give meaning to Cubans' lives.

Born out of the first oral history project authorized by the Cuban government in forty years, Professor Elizabeth Dore gathers these stories to illuminate the slow and agonizing decline of the Cuban Revolution over the past four decades. For over sixty years the government controlled the historical narrative. In this book, Cubans tell their own stories.

304 pages, Hardcover

Published August 4, 2022

Reviews

[Giovanna Tanzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many layers, disparities, and contradictions unfold from the enduring Cuban regime over the last 65 years!

The interviews compiled by the author coalesce into a vibrant, poignant, and somewhat pessimistic portrayal of the island's population. Having read it before my journey, it occurred to me that it might lack objectivity, given that all the interviewees hail from the lower-middle classes, harbor an obsession with the idea of migration, and partially share a common dissent towards the Communist Party's economic decisions.

In reality, the sample proves to be more than truthful when substantiated by field experience, thereby supporting the statement (present in the book) that the most pressing needs of the Cuban population are undeniably food (above all!), work, and migration. What is worse is that this holds true across all social classes. Furthermore, the post-COVID economy, untouched in the narrative, has not improved due to the scarcity of food and goods, the correspondence of low wages, the strong centrality of the state, and one must add the largest migratory wave in history following the protests and subsequent incarcerations of 2021. The book is intriguing because the stories are intimate, marked by a human touch, and laden with the contradictions that surface.

However, there is one notable flaw: the structure is chaotic. The various narrators intervene across different historical periods (80s, 90s, and 2000s), causing their interviews to be fragmented and categorized based on the reference period. This, unfortunately, induces a sense of confusion in the reader, who must repeatedly revisit or recall information about a specific interviewee by flipping back, perhaps, 60-70 pages.

[Corinne Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF half way(ish). This book wasn’t bad. It was written well although some parts were a bit jarring with the story, like when the narrator assumed things about the story they were told.
Mostly though I didn’t like the structure. There was no coherent narratives because the interviews moved back and forth in time. It wasn’t clear when they said ‘as opposed to now’ when they were talking about, plus the characters’ backgrounds were difficult to keep straight as it jumped between 7 (roughly) of them.
I just couldn’t keep fighting to orient details in place, time and in characters’ lives, so gave up!