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Title: Paradise Lost
Review: Carlos Eire recalls in detail his privileged and pampered boyhood in Cuba with absolutely eccentric parents before Castro's revolution. Sometimes the writing is just overly dramatic and sometimes the tone is even whiny but by relying heavily on magical realism the author does effectively convey the extent Castro changed life in Cuba for so many - and not for the better as he promised. Eire also conveys a sense of loss - not only of boyhood and all its pleasures but of a culture, a way of life that was needlessly destroyed and replaced by something so much inferior. Many of the images in this book are sensitive and poetic and yet so many others are equally ugly and violent, perhaps reflecting the emotional and spiritual damage of an upheaval such as a revolution. In any case, Waiting for Snow in Havana gives the reader much insight into the thoughts and memories of another exile unjustly deprived of his homeland and family and any sense of connectedness and congruity with the past.
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