A weakly plotted romantic story showcases Iyer's skills as a travel writer and demonstrates that writing travelogues and writing fiction are two different things.The portraits of the Cubans and their night life are vibrant and sad and those of the foreigners, including the author's first person personae, are stereotypical. The foreigners do not seem to be fully conscious of nor appreciative of the risks their new Cuban friends area taking to associate with them.The romance is so poorly drawn, we cannot tell why the writer loves (or is obsessed with) Lourdes. Once plans are made, the outcome is predictable.The descriptions of Cuban night life, attitude and passion are wonderful. The text is shaded with poetry from Jose Marti, the ubiquitous sloganeering and talk of the ever-present Fidel. You can see the aging buildings and autos, you feel like you are waiting too. Without this color, it would be a three (or maybe two) star book.For a better Cuban travelogue, with a real love story, I recommend Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island
Do You like book Cuba And The Night (1996)?
This is a delightfully insightful look at life in communist Cuba and also a love story between an international photojournalist and a young Cuban woman. Told in the first person from the photographer's point of view, we slowly see the complexities of Cuban life unfold as he becomes more involved with this woman and her life in Cuba. The contrasts between the needs of men and women in relationships, and capitalism and communism, are well presented. Although written during the early 1990s, the portrayal of life in Cuba and the Cuban people was still valid when I read the book in 2003.
—Orion
